New Year’s resolutions are common practice as we embrace the new year, and as such, many businesses set goals and make resolutions. An aspect that is often overlooked but is important to consider is intellectual property (IP). Properly managing and protecting your business’ IP can assist in maintaining a competitive edge, safeguarding your brand and reputation, and maximising the value of your assets.
A New Year’s resolutions that all businesses should include, is conducting an IP audit and due diligence investigation. This is a comprehensive assessment of all IP assets pertaining to your business, including both registered and non-registered IP. An IP audit can assist your business in identifying gaps in your IP protection and highlight any potential IP related risks. IP audits should be a continuous exercise to ensure that an organisation properly manages its IP and avoids matters falling through the cracks.
The benefits of IP audits include:
- Having an overview or dashboard of all IP assets used and/or owned by the business.
- The assessment of the commercial value of the IP assets and their potential for generating revenue.
- Ability to formulate a suitable IP strategy that can be used to support the business’ strategic objectives.
- Enable management to generate appropriate negotiation terms for a particular transaction.
- Avoid potential litigation.
- Identification of potential infringements and/or mitigate the risk of the business infringing other third party’s IP.
- Cost reduction through the removal of unnecessary expenditure associated with payments of maintenance fees on IP assets that are no longer fit for purpose.
To help ensure the success and longevity of your business, resolve to make IP a priority this year. Our Firm, Tshaya Mashabela Attorneys can assist you with conducting IP audits and due diligence investigations, and the development of IP strategies.
