Shining a Spotlight on your Intellectual Property

Joanne Shelley, Head of Intellectual Property at Glenville Walker and Partners, explains the benefits of an IP audit.

• Do you own it?
• Can you use it?
• Are you making the most of it?
• Will people pay to use it?

Intellectual Property allows businesses and individuals to own the work they create arising out of their innovation.

All businesses own or use intellectual property, from your business and products names and logos, the contents of your website and social media campaigns, to the technology and software used operationally.

Many organisations will have registered trademarks, obtained or used patents, have licenses in place to use general software and understanding the copyright ownership in their context, but is it time to review your own new technologies, processes and apps?

Have you recently developed products, software or apps designed to make your operations more efficient or create solutions for customer challenges, or disrupt the current way of doing business in your sector?

Did you use external developers?

Is part of the new solution reliant upon software or databases provided by third-parties?

Do your current licences permit you to sell or licence your new technology to third-parties?

What due diligence have your carried out?

Glenville Walker IP Audit

At Glenville Walker and Partners we work with clients in a variety of sectors including logistics, dental products, manufacturing, food and hygiene in carrying out IP audits to review the IP in new products, software, technology or apps.

The aim of our IP audit is to identify the various intellectual property rights (IPR's) that exist, and flag up any gaps in the ownership or current licencing arrangements, assist with protection, commercialisation and profit generation from your IPR's.

During a recent IP audit for a large North-west organisation, we carried out the due diligence, identified issues regarding the IP ownership of elements of the new software and licencing arrangements, for associated databases, and resolved the issues with the necessary legal agreements.

This enabled our client to raise substantial revenue by licencing the new technology in both their own and other unrelated sectors.

For more information and help with all your intellectual property needs, please contact our Head of Intellectual Property, Joanne Shelley on 0151 305 9650 or email joanne.shelley@glenvillewalker.com