It is not uncommon for most businesses to include an Intellectual Property (IP) clause in their contracts of employment. Whereas, having an IP Clause in such documents could be a good start towards determining IP ownership for your business, its effect would be better achieved through a concrete and exhaustive IP policy.
There is a common misconception that only large businesses and businesses involved in creation and innovation need IP policies. In today’s world where innovation is at the center of business and economic development with the key aspects being finding innovative solutions to make our work easier and provide better services or products, no business can escape the aspects of creativity and innovation. Almost every business has developed some kind of IP asset, and every business utilizes a form of IP regularly.
Most companies today are utilizing creative advertising and innovative services delivery options. Imagine a situation where employees are tasked to suggest logos, create adverts or even where some employees come up with innovative Ideas and products to ease the work they do! How would ownership of rights under such works be addressed? Would a four-line IP clause in the employment manual suffice at this point? Maybe it would. But businesses and institutions are better off having a concrete and exhaustive IP policy that clearly determine key terms of IP ownership and enforcement to save legal costs and incidental issues that might arise from lack of clear and certain IP Policies.
Why have an IP Policy?
Having an IP Policy helps businesses and institutions to secure protection for their valuable IP assets and ensures that there is certain determination of rights, ownership, and steps to be taken from development of the IP asset until protection is secured and eventually commercialized (if needed). An intellectual property policy outlines the guidelines and procedures that businesses and institutions take to protect their intellectual property and ensures that the company’s intellectual property rights and intellectual property strategy are respected and properly enforced.
One of the main reasons why you need an IP policy, is to clearly outline the guidelines and procedures that your business should take to identify IP assets, steps to secure protection for the assets that the business or institution decides to protect, management for the business or institutions assets as well as maintenance and enforcement for your IP assets. It is important that there is certainty as to which assets will be prioritized for protection (and why) and such decisions are made by the IP management personnel or office of the institution or business. Without such certainty, you risk mismanagement and losing valuable IP assets.
Having an IP policy will help you to properly enforce your IP assets and prevent infringement (both internal and external). IP policies clearly establish and determine ownership of IP assets by employees and partners and as such help solve any ownership and infringement issues that might arise. It is important to note that national laws can be considered if institutional IP policies and contracts of employment are insufficient to address infringement.
IP assets will benefit your business if your business strategy is complimented by your IP strategy which is normally outlined in the IP Policy. A clear IP strategy lays out the business’s intentions regarding its IP in terms of prioritization for registration, commercialization, technology transfer and partnerships. Such a strategy cannot be included in a simple IP Clause in the employment contract or manual.
Therefore, it is important that businesses and institutions have IP Policies clearly determining how to protect their valuable assets, the strategy for management of these IP assets and commercialization. This is not only important for the staff to be aware of their rights (if any) in the IP assets but also for third parties like investors.
