Intellectual property and its effective use have become a significant even vital part of value creation in many businesses. Improvements in revenues, market share, and so returns on capital are being achieved through:

• understanding the strategic importance and use of intellectual property;

• improving future innovation and intellectual property development, protection or acquisition if needed, and its use;

• maximising revenue generation from intellectual property when used in the business including through the use of joint ventures and licencing;

• accessing strategically important intellectual property owned by others even competitors using joint ventures and licensing.

The management of intellectual property can be improved if the approach to intellectual property is mostly as a legal problem dealt with by the company secretary or by the legal department if one exists, it’s is about the cost of protecting intellectual property, there is no proper attempt to align investment in innovation and intellectual property, the market place and the obtaining of legal rights, and there are only sporadic attempts to find out what innovation and intellectual property is in the business.

In contrast, effective management of innovation and intellectual property is characterised by a management which understands concepts of intellectual property, knows the intellectual property of the businesses, analyses the market and intellectual property in relation to the market, links spending on innovation and intellectual property development and acquisition to measures of added value, and secures those legal rights necessary to sustain the market advantage derived from the intellectual property.