IP Starter

What Are Your Key Markets Or Production Points? Do You Really Need To Register Your IP In Those Territories?

By tailoring your IP portfolio to give priority to your identified key markets, you could avoid wasting money. While “world wide protection” sounds good, it will be beyond most budgets since registration of IP rights can be expensive, and it is after all pointless for an organisation to throw in money in protecting rights which they cannot afford to enforce if infringement occurs. It is necessary to accept that you may have to allow some areas to go unprotected and try to ensure that they are the least commercially important ones. With the help of the experts, you can make an assessment of what can realistically be achieved, and this will avoid resource wastage and maximise exploitation of your IP.

A strategy that some companies adopt is to stake an early claim by filing an application first, and stretch out the application process in order to maximise time to finalise the company’s plans for the IP, or find an interested partner or licencee. For countries which are signatory to the Paris Convention or World Trade Organization, you may depend on the earlier filed application as the priority application – staking a claim on that date.

Take time to plot out your strategy - after all, getting the grant at the fastest pace may not best serve your needs!


Top	Last updated on 29 Aug 2007