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Intellectual Property Audit
The Intellectual Property Audit is the first step toward
an integrated intellectual property management system for your business.
An IP Audit is a hunt for under-utilized assets, waste, and potential
legal exposures. An IP Audit has four basic purposes:
- Protection of company-created assets
- Leveraging income generating intellectual property
- Compliance with existing licenses to and from the company
- Avoiding infringement of the intellectual property of others
Triggering Events
Companies should conduct a partial or complete IP Audit
as a regularly scheduled process, or when:
- Conducting strategic planning initiatives
- Facing a significant stock purchase or debt financing
- Merger, acquisition, sale, or closure
- There have been significant changes in applicable laws
- Beginning a branding campaign
Types of Assets
Our IP Audits focus on the following company-created
intellectual assets:
- Copyrighted Materials
- Documents, Articles, Marketing Materials, etc.
- Work Made For Hire
- Freelance/Contractor Agreements
- Trademarks and other Branding Elements
- Product Names
- Logos
- Internet Domain Names
- Slogans
- Songs
- Colors, Scents, Shapes
- Characters
- Packaging
- Other indicators of source.
- Trade Secrets
- What would you NOT want your competitors to know?
- Why?
- What are you doing to protect those secrets?
- What should you be doing to protect those secrets?
- Contracts
- Employee
- Subcontractors
- Licenses
- Patents (if applicable)
- Master Works (if applicable)
- Internet Issues
- Domain Names
- Email Policies
- Employee Blogs
- Hyperlinks
- Metatags
- Materials Used WITHOUT Express License
- Competitor Trademarks
- Incidental Photocopying
- Email
- Employee Data
- Client Data
- Assets Used WITH Express License
- Software
- Equipment
- Trademarks
- Copyrights
- Patents
What We'll Look For
The IP Audit is designed to discover and document:
- Income Generating Assets
- Ownership of Assets
- Records of Transfers
- Perfection of Security Interests
- Compliance with Statutory Formalities
- Potential Infringement Issues
- Defenses to any Potential Infringement Issues
Our Process
We approach the project as follows:
- Define the Scope of the Audit. Will it be comprehensive,
or just a look at your trademarks and trade secrets?
- Develop the Schedule
- Gather Information
- General Questionnaires
- IP Inventories (as defined in scope of work)
- Registered Copyrights
- Registered Trademarks
- Registered Patents
- Employee Manual
- General Business/Strategic/Marketing/Sales Plan
- Advertising Materials
- Graphic Standards Manual
- Software License Inventory
- Trade Secret Information
- Employee Invention Journals (when appropriate)
- Individual Interviews
- Management
- Sales/Marketing
- Human Resources
- Line Employees
- Direct Observation
- Written Analysis
- Response Planning
- Policy Development
- Employee Education Programs
- Registration of Assets
- License Development, Planning, Negotiation.
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