The first case study looks at a hi tech enterprise taking the Alder IP Risk Management tool into use, the rationale for this company taking the tool into use, how they went about taking the tool into use, and the benefits it brought.
The company in this particular case study is a medium sized enterprise active in the ‘hi tech’ sector. The company has been in operation since the 90s and now operates worldwide. The Legal / IP function within the company had good people but has limited headcount.
The GC of this company faced a number of IP risk management related challenges:
– too narrow a definition of intellectual property in use
– little understanding of the diversity of IP related risks the company faced
– no IP risk management process in place
– no IP risk management system deployed
– inability to always link IP risks and IP risk mitigation actions together
– little understanding of the variety of IP risk mitigation solutions that exist
– challenges with sorting IP related risks into different categories
– difficulties in articulating IP related risks to C level Executives
– no IP risk management governance
The company tool the Alder IP Risk Management tool into use in early 2015. They accepted that the Alder tool would not magically solve all of these IP risk management related issues but that it would certainly help the company to move up the maturity ladder when it is comes IP risk management.
The Alder IP Risk Management Tool was taken into use by the company’s Legal & IP function with access to the tool limited to just that function.
The fact that the Alder IP Risk Management tool was easy to install, easy to configure and easy to take into use proved a major USP. This company actually started to use the tool on the same day that the tool was demonstrated to them.
This company adopted a three phased approach when they took the Alder IP Risk Management Tool into use:
Phase #1: The companyutilizedthe Alder IP Risk Management Tool initially only for managingone specific type of IP related risk, in this case Trademark related risks.
Phase #2: The company then started to gather all historical IP related risks which existedin different places throughout the company (in people’s heads, in e-mails, in different systems, etc.)and inputtedall of that historical data into the AlderIP Risk Management Tool.
Phase #3: The companythen startedusing the Alder IP Risk Management Tool to log all IP related risks and made this tool the de-facto system to help manage IP related risksacross the entire organization.
The key benefits for this company were getting IP risk management under proper control and being able to effectively articulate IP related risks to C level Executives in the company.
Author: Donal O’Connel
Managing Director, Chawton Innovation Services Limited
