Conducting an IP Audit

Checklist: identifying your IP

Be systematic in identifying your IP and do not be too conservative about the time and resources you allocate to doing the job thoroughly.

You need to ask questions about IP assets that are key to your competitive advantage and should in turn be protected. The following is a sample of the type of questions you should be asking:

• Do you have any registered trade marks, designs or patents?
• If so, do you know when they are due for renewal?
• Do you own the IP you are using? Can you prove it? Do you have the contracts and other proof that a court of law would require?
• What are the processes or knowledge critical to your business success? Are they unique to your business? If so, have you protected them?
• Do you have signed agreements with key personnel, contractors, consultants or other external suppliers which assign any IP they develop, when working for you, to your business?
• Do you have valuable customer lists or databases?

You should also address the development, protection management, commercialisation and overall responsibility for all the forms of IP in your firm. Consider seeking the services of a lawyer or a patent attorney if you are not sure about any of these issues:

• Who has written and designed your marketing and promotional material, including printed brochures and leaflets?
• Were these done in-house or did you obtain the services of a graphic designer or professional writer? If you used external contractors, did their contracts specify who owned the IP that was created?
• Does your firm have policies and procedures in place specifically to manage and protect your IP?
• Do you have a staff education program that covers the protection and management of your IP?

The issue of education is essential if your firm's core business involves the creation or use of IP. IP education ensures your employees are able to assist you to appropriately protect, manage and commercialise your IP. Even if you do not regard IP as a core business asset, it is worth educating staff on IP issues so they can take steps to avoid infringing or inappropriately using the IP of others.

During this simple audit process you may identify a number of IP assets you did not know your company owned. You may also realise that IP assets you are aware of are not adequately protected. For example, have you registered your business name as a trade mark? If you have not, it is something worth thinking about.

Your responses to these initial questions will hopefully lead to questions about your IP strategies and ongoing IP management. Together, these should lead to making your IP an integral part of your business strategy and planning.

You should also consider whether these questions apply to other, not necessarily registrable IP, such as customer lists, manuals, software and photographs.

A sample asset register can be downloaded in PDF format to enable you to create your own simple register. Click here to download your proforma asset register.