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Intellectual capital: not a black and white issue
Published on 8 November 2008, Institution of Engineering and Technology
By Jackie Maguire
Intellectual capital, like insurance, needs to be understood and dealt with before it’s too late. E&T examines why there’s more to it than intellectual property issues.
Many companies have talented individuals or teams who come up with wonderful inventions. Finding a practical use for these ideas, marketing them and then fully exploiting their potential, however, can require quite different skills, which may not always be found in the same individual, team or even company that came up with the original idea. And one area that is often neglected by organisations is not just protecting, but also commercialising, those designs and inventions. Many organisations are not clear on how best to value their intellectual capital, to protect their ideas and inventions against theft by competitors, or to make themselves attractive to potential investors or organisations, who might be interested in eventually buying them.
In many businesses – particularly start-ups – there is usually enough to worry about just to ensure that the day-to-day activities are
taken care of, without worrying about someone stealing your intellectual assets. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that many
companies still function without taking even basic measures to protect themselves – and this applies even to some quite large
organisations.
Even if an organisation has taken measures to protect its intellectual capital, they may still not understand how to exploit it fully.
Protection, although important, is not enough more>>.
