Using IP for Competitive Advantage

From S to M in the SME growth cycle: how to make your

business sustainable as it expands

NETPark – 16 March 2010

Achieving Growth

• Today’s speakers cover the tools required to achieve

growth:
• Finance generation
• Recruitment strategy
• Sales and Marketing strategy
• Managing Risk
• Operations

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Achieving Growth

• Intellectual Property contributes using an IP

management strategy

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Achieving Growth

• What is an IP management strategy?

• Do I need one?
• It’s going to be expensive, isn’t it?

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What is an IP Management Strategy?

• A strategy to identify, protect and effectively manage

intellectual capital in a company
• Assets arising from technology R+D, know-how and
branding
• Intangible assets

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What is an IP Management Strategy?

• One function of an IP Strategy can be to preserve

and build upon those aspects of a company’s
business that differentiate that company from its
competitors

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What is an IP Management Strategy?

And so maintain that competitive advantage

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Forming an IP Management Strategy

• Start with the end in mind – what are the overall business
goals and strategies?

• maintain our competitive advantage

• grow turnover by x% over the next year
• increase shareholder value

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Forming an IP Management Strategy

• Start with the end in mind – what are the overall business
goals and strategies?

• maintain our competitive advantage

• grow turnover by x% over the next year
• increase shareholder value
• exit in 5yrs
• make ourselves attractive to investors
• licence out our technology

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Forming an IP Management Strategy

• Start with the end in mind – what are the overall business
goals and strategies?

• increase market share

• prevent competitors copying our innovations
• enter new markets
• enter new territories
• freedom to carry on what we are doing
• and so on ………………………………

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Forming an IP Management Strategy

• What are the technical, legal and product issues?

• What are your key differentiators and how critical are they to your
business?
• What IP assets do you currently own?
• How do you record IP assets?
• How does innovation “happen” in your company?
• Where are your markets, competitors and production centres
based?

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Forming an IP Management Strategy

• What are the technical, legal and product issues?

• Who are your main competitors and what IP rights do they own?
• How can you assess the value of any IP?
• Which products or processes are most at risk from being copied?
• Who is/would be in charge of IP asset management and what
budget should you allocate?
• What is the level of awareness of what IP is in your company?
• Where do your inventions lie in the product chain?
• and so on ……………………………………………..

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Forming an IP Management Strategy

• Use answers to those questions to write an IP

business plan setting out a series of actions and
processes
• A relatively inexpensive process using management
time and some professional guidance

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Using IP for Competitive Advantage

• A case study of an IP management strategy and IP

landscape
• Role of a patent attorney in delivering on the strategy

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• Overall business goals and strategies:

• Bulk Fuel are a company selling coal and wood to schools
and hospitals to heat their buildings
• They have contracts with the county council and PCTs
• They have supply contracts with fuel suppliers
• They have an efficient distribution network
• They want to maintain their competitive edge in the NE and
move into new territories such as Yorkshire

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• IP landscape
• What are your key differentiators and how critical are they to
your business?
• Reputation, cost, people, experience, goodwill - essential
• What IP assets do you currently own?
• Know-how wrapped up in customer lists, contacts, relationships,
supplier agreements
• How does innovation “happen” in your company?
• Most improvements to date have been in response to customer
requests

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• IP landscape
• Where are your markets, competitors and production centres
based?
• Durham
• Who are your main competitors and what IP rights do they
own?
• Other supply companies, not sure
• How can you assess the value of any IP assets?
• High relative to the turnover
• Which products or processes are most at risk from being
copied?
• Staff leaving and taking know-how, contacts and goodwill with them

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• Some actions and processes arising to maintain

competitive edge:

• Protect the goodwill and reputation

• Trade mark protection

• Protect the know how

• Trade secret process
• Employee contracts

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• Actions and Processes arising to maintain

competitive edge:

• Capture innovation
• Process to log and review customer requests and any
solutions
• Patent filings

• Competitor IP rights
• Search and monitoring of patent databases
• Use of enabled technical publications as prior art

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• Actions and processes arising to move into new

territory
• Can we licence any IP assets?
• identify potential licensees (your competitors!)
• a patented innovation
• a trade mark

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• Actions and processes arising to move into new

territory
• Can we raise finance?
• What’s the security?
• Takeover, but what are the assets we would be buying?
• If these are IP assets, how well are they protected?
• What’s their IP management strategy!

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Example – Bulk Fuel Ltd

• Actions and processes arising to move into new

territory
• Can we set up a franchise?
• What competitor IP assets might hinder our progress?

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Summary

• Maintaining that competitive advantage

• What is an IP management strategy?

• IP business plan
• Do I need one?
• Yes
• It’s going to be expensive, isn’t it?
• Implementation cost is relative to the value of the IP assets of
the business
• Drive towards the minimum IP protection to enable the
business to do what it needs to do

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 Thank you

alex.turnbull@hlbbshaw.com
UK and European Patent Attorney
European Trade Mark Attorney

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