IP Audit
In many cases SME’s do not have the resources to conduct a full audit of all its IP and will find it difficult to put a value to each of the components making up an IP portfolio. Putting aside these difficulties, and at the risk of reducing the exercise, it is important for every business to document and value what is, in many cases, its most important intangible assets.
An IP Audit is defined as a systematic review of the IP assets owned, used or acquired by a business. Its purpose is to uncover under-utilized IP assets, to identify any threats to a company’s bottom line, and to enable business planners to devise informed strategies that will maintain and improve the company’s market position.
Methodology
The first step is to identify IP:
Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) will help SME to identify their IP by asking them a series of interactive questions. By responding to each question, we will identify IP in their business which they own, or which they use.
The second step is to assess what SMEs rights are in relation to each item of IP identified: The economic benefit of IP cannot be realised unless a business has ownership over the IP available to it.