According to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2021, the number of patents filed worldwide is steadily increasing with a 2.7% year-on-year growth.
This trend suggests that businesses are actively seeking to protect their innovations and ideas.
With more patents being filed, companies face a heightened need to navigate the evolving intellectual property challenges.
What are the challenges of intellectual property management?
From the intricacies of patent filings to the risks of cybersecurity breaches, businesses navigate a variety of hurdles to maintain a competitive edge.
But let’s discuss the key challenges companies face today in IP management.
Bonus: You can also download our free guide to protect and enforce your intellectual properties.
#1 Understanding Where IP Management Begins
Thinking IP management starts with a patent application is one of the most common and grave challenges in intellectual property.
The truth is that the lifecycle of intellectual property management begins even before an invention or an innovative idea is captured by the company.
The process starts with inviting potential innovations within the company. This includes not only formal research and development activities but also ideas that emerge from employees, partners, or customers. Capturing these ideas early on is essential for effective IP management.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), about 80% of the information relevant to business comes from employees’ interactions and experiences.
This underscores the importance of capturing ideas that emerge from employees, partners, or customers for effective IP management.
However, on average, 60% of ideas never get registered within an organization.
So, companies and top management need to understand the importance of starting early and strong to build a strong IP portfolio.
Related Read: Don’t Miss these Intellectual Property Management Tips to Build a Strong IP Portfolio
#2 Creating Valuable Intellectual Property
Businesses are likely to face several IP management issues due to technological advancements, evolving laws, and global competition.
However, the top priority among the intellectual property challenges will remain generating valuable innovation assets with monetization potential.
According to a study by IPWatchdog, in 2020, the top 12 technology companies spent over $76 billion on research and development (R&D) to create and protect valuable intellectual property.
But the interesting part is that you don’t need to pour in heavy money to match innovation efforts.
Whether it’s a groundbreaking product, a game-changing process improvement, or a revolutionary piece of software, you only need to engage your existing human assets.
If the goal is to generate IP that not only sets you apart from competitors but also creates tangible value for your business, only your people will help you.
They are the ones who know your business inside out. Tap into their innovation potential!
That’s where idea and innovation management software comes into play.
These tools act as a catalyst for creativity and collaboration within organizations, helping to streamline the process of idea generation, development, and protection.
#3 Identifying and Protecting Valuable IP Assets
Did you know that in 2020 alone, over 400,000 patent applications were filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)?
That’s a whole lot of inventiveness being put on paper!
But not everything qualifies for a patent. You’ve got to assess if an invention is novel, non-obvious, and useful. It’s like passing the ultimate test to secure your innovation’s place in history.
This test is a crucial part of the intellectual property management process. However, it’s not at all easy.
You need a professional and tested Invention Management System.
The challenges to intellectual property rights come in the form of which inventors should be asked to pursue their brainchild further and who should be told to drop their ideas. Or will they need to put their projects on halt for the time being until they develop a viable hypothesis?
This is a hard decision that requires effective stakeholder management and a two-fold analysis to ensure you don’t miss out on an IP opportunity.
Identifying and protecting your IP assets isn’t just about locking them up in a vault and calling it a day. It’s about recognizing their value and investing in their protection to keep your competitive edge sharp.
After all, in today’s cutthroat business world, your IP could be the difference between sinking or swimming.
#4 Managing IP Portfolio
What are the intellectual property issues facing entrepreneurs?
Simply put, corporate legal teams face numerous challenges in building their IP strategy and managing IP portfolios effectively.
These portfolio management challenges include:
- increased workload,
- reduced headcount,
- time constraints,
- manual tasks,
- risk management,
- global team collaboration,
- the need for reliable technology.
According to a survey by the International Trademark Association (INTA), 70% of legal professionals reported an increase in the volume of trademark work in recent years.
As companies expand their operations and introduce new products and services, their IP portfolios grow. It places additional demands on legal teams to manage and protect these assets.
Despite all this, many IP management processes still rely heavily on manual tasks, leading to inefficiencies and errors.
Without automation and streamlined workflows, legal teams may struggle to keep up with the demands of IP portfolio management.
The only solution to fix this new age problem is to go digital with the innovation management and invention disclosure process, too. Companies often choose big tools for IP management but forget to strengthen their innovation base.
Tools like InspireIP help you bridge this gap by integrating with heavy-based tools effectively and cost-efficiently to make your beginning as perfect as your patent lifecycle.
#5 Documenting for Successful Patent Filing
Take a company like Tesla, for example. Their engineering team is constantly pushing the boundaries of electric vehicle technology, while their legal team is working overtime to protect their innovations through patents and trademarks. But if these teams aren’t communicating effectively, valuable IP could slip through the cracks.
So, how do you ensure you do not face such challenges in protecting intellectual property?
By documenting and storing every little aspect right from the ideation phase!
Firstly, detailed records are essential in case of disputes over ownership or creation dates of innovations. If another company claims infringement on their IP, having documentation of your development process can prove your originality.
Similarly, if former employees dispute ownership, these records provide evidence of the company’s involvement and ownership.
Even if key employees leave, this helps prevent the loss of critical information and ensures continuity of operations.
Furthermore, documenting innovation processes serves as a resource for future projects.
By reviewing past successes and failures, teams can learn from experiences, make informed decisions, and improve innovation processes.
Digital invention disclosure software facilitates this by providing a centralized platform to store and access information easily.
#6 Protecting AI-generated Content and Inventions
As AI technologies advance, the emergence of AI-generated content and inventions poses significant challenges for intellectual property (IP) management. One of the key concerns is determining the ownership and protection of such creations.
In traditional IP systems, ownership is typically attributed to human creators. However, with AI-generated content and inventions, the lines blur.
Who owns the rights to a piece of music composed by an AI system? Or a new drug discovered through machine learning algorithms?
These questions raise complex legal and ethical issues that current IP frameworks are often ill-equipped to address.
To tackle these challenges, legal frameworks need to evolve to accommodate AI-generated IP.
This may involve establishing new criteria for determining ownership, updating copyright and patent laws, and developing mechanisms for fair attribution and compensation.
Additionally, addressing ethical considerations such as transparency, accountability, and bias in AI-generated content and inventions is essential.
For example, the European Patent Office (EPO) has recently published guidelines on the patentability of inventions involving AI and machine learning, aiming to provide clarity on the subject.
Similarly, organizations like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are exploring the ethical implications of AI in IP and advocating for international collaboration to address these issues.
#7 Performing a Patentability Search Just at the Right Time
Prior art searches are crucial. They help you understand what’s out there, what’s been done before, and what might already be patented.
They surely do help save a lot of time, effort, money, and resources if done at the right time;
But sometimes, diving into that search too soon can put a damper on your creative spark and limit the exploration of new ideas.
And patentability search ends up being one of the intellectual property issues examples.
Just because similar ideas exist doesn’t mean ours couldn’t be better or different in some way. Maybe we could improve on existing designs, or maybe we could find a niche market that wasn’t being served.
Originally discussed at Medium: Prior Art Search: Inspires Innovation or Stifles It?
Although the AI-powered prior art search feature is available to the innovator in the latest invention software, the flow includes brainstorming, prototype development, collaboration, and concept validation before diving into detailed prior art searches.
Result? The creative process is not prematurely stifled, and there’s a freedom to explore and develop ideas without constraints.
#8 Balancing Non-Compete Bans and Innovation
The issue of the non-compete ban has garnered attention in the United States. Particularly, the pushback is regarding the impact a non-compete ban will have on employees’ mobility and ability to seek employment at their top competitors freely.
Essentially, employers fear that if the FTC ban non-competes, it will result in employees leaving with trade secrets and client information and companies losing their intellectual property.
In 2024, balancing non-compete bans and innovation will be a significant intellectual property challenge.
Finding a middle ground that protects both employers’ IP rights and employees’ freedom to pursue new opportunities is crucial.
This may involve implementing alternative measures, such as non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or limiting the scope and duration of non-compete agreements, to address concerns while still fostering a competitive and innovative business environment.
#9 Protecting costs of intellectual property
As businesses continue to invest heavily in innovation and technology, the expenses associated with acquiring, maintaining, and enforcing IP rights are on the rise.
One aspect of this challenge is the increasing complexity of IP protection.
With advancements in technology and globalization, companies are expanding their IP portfolios, which often include patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Managing and protecting these diverse assets requires significant financial resources, including filing fees, maintenance costs, legal expenses, and enforcement efforts.
Moreover, the global nature of business means that companies must navigate different legal systems, languages, and cultural norms when protecting their IP rights internationally.
This can result in additional costs associated with filing and maintaining IP registrations in multiple jurisdictions, as well as legal fees for enforcing rights abroad.
#10 Building coherence between stakeholders
Picture this: you’ve got a team of brilliant engineers working tirelessly to develop groundbreaking innovations for your startup. Meanwhile, your legal and leadership teams are focused on long-term strategies for safeguarding those innovations.
But here’s the catch – they’re not always on the same page.
According to a survey by the International Trademark Association, 80% of companies reported that lack of communication between legal and business teams is a significant challenge in managing IP.
That’s a huge missed opportunity for synergy!
That’s why it’s crucial to maintain contact between your creators and decision-makers.
Your legal team can’t defend what they don’t know about or comprehend.
By fostering open communication and collaboration between these teams, you can ensure that everyone is aligned on the importance of protecting your intellectual property.
With features like live communication, collaboration on invention, document sharing, task assignment, and project tracking, InspireIP facilitates seamless communication between engineering, legal, and leadership teams.
This promotes a culture of collaboration and ensures that valuable IP is protected effectively.
In Conclusion
As we move into 2024, businesses will face a myriad of intellectual property challenges.
From navigating the IP complexities to balancing non-compete bans with innovation, companies must adapt to a rapidly evolving landscape.
However, businesses can overcome these challenges by:
- leveraging technology solutions,
- fostering collaboration between stakeholders,
- prioritizing strategic investments,
- protecting valuable intellectual assets.
With proactive approaches and a commitment to innovation, companies can position themselves for success in the ever-changing market.
