The concept of intellectual property is overlooked as a crucial element to the core business strategy and this is due to the fact that intellectual property is a term often used within a business context but not one that is fully understood. In order to remain relevant and competitive, today’s corporate leaders must prioritise their efforts to understand intellectual property and use it strategically.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation states that intellectual property “refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” Thus intellectual property can be said to be an intangible asset to a business that can be commercialised in much the same way that tangible assets can. Over the last 20 years, the international business community has shifted in the sphere of what is considered a valuable asset from tangible assets (plants and machinery, property etc) to intangible assets (patents, skilled workers and brands).
Information and ideas have become most valuable forms of property, therefore making intellectual property the key building block of any business. Businesses that have successfully harnessed their intangible assets are among the world’s most profitable companies.
The most well known example of this is probably Coca-Cola. The company has successfully used intellectual property protection to stay competitive. Coca-Cola owns copyright in the design of its bottles, its logos, advertising, and generally anything it creates that can be considered an original work requiring creative effort. They have registered trademarks in its logo and script design as well as the distinctive shape of the coke bottle. They, like many companies, create inventions that can assist with its business and they hold patents for many of these. Another advantage is the fact that the formula for making Coca-Cola is a trade secret.
It is imperative to Coca-Cola that the formula remains a secret and thus cannot be used by any other company to create a competing drink. All this protection means Coca-Cola can preclude competitors from employing the same strategies and infringing on their market share. In addition because intangible assets can be valued and have a monetary figure, as Coca-Cola has had uninterrupted IP protection thus their logo, scripts and designs are worth a tremendous amount of money.
In view of the changing market dynamics one needs to ask these questions: Are our assets/ideas protected? How does IP impact your brand recognition? What will happen if these assets fall into the wrong hands or are used by competitors?
You don’t have to be running a multinational company to depend on intangibles. Cultivating know-how and experience, protecting confidential business information, and building a good reputation are just as important to solo practitioners and small businesses as to large companies. Whether you are competing as a professional services provider, plumber, landscaper within a local community or software company, your success depends in large part on your intangible assets.
At the national level, we can count repeatedly many countries that survive on intellectual property, mostly the more developed countries such as United States and the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, Nigeria is not one of them for so many reasons. The inability to link IP with the domestic economy, technological and cultural environment has weakened its functional utility in fulfilling its acclaimed role of contributing to economic development.
In closing, if you don’t have any Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) or don’t know what to do with them, you should be concerned because they are crucial to modern commerce. The importance has increased hugely over the past 30 years, as protecting creativity and inventiveness through IPRs has become ever more critical to the development of whole industries (and countries) and to the success of many of the corporate players. The post recession winners are the ones that master the delicate balance between cutting costs to survive today and ensuring you have a solid Intellectual Property strategy in place to protect your future investments in Research and development, marketing and new assets.
