Every business has intangible assets that are valuable and which can be protected.  Such assets usually include brands, designs, creative works, formulae, know-how, technology, data, confidential information and goodwill.

Intellectual property laws provide your business with the freedom to operate without fear or interference from competitors, enables it to grow and generate additional revenue, provides certainty by marking out the boundaries of your protection, makes your business more investible, allows tax credits to be claimed, all of which enhances the value of the business thereby enabling a higher exit price.

Services and Legal Expertise

ibd Law can provide significant expertise and legal support by developing strategies on how to manage those assets to achieve the objectives above and in each of the following areas.

Protection – protecting and enforcing your intangible assets is key to capturing their value

• Trade marks – a competitively priced “one stop shop” for registering international trade marks and domain names which includes the full range of clearance, registration, conflict resolution, enforcement and portfolio management services worldwide simplifies the process.
• Patents – strategic input on how your inventions are protected and managed such as which jurisdictions the patents should be filed in, the extent and scope of protection, whether collaborations are required are essential.
• Copyright – effective and practical considerations are required to ensure your copyright assets (and other unregistrable rights) are securely maintained.

Exploitation – creating an additional income stream from your intangible assets

This can be achieved in a number of ways, through licensing or distribution agreements to take innovative products to market.  ibd Law is experienced in technology transfer agreements, international licensing and collaboration arrangements in relation to a diverse range of industries from consumer goods to biotechnology and electronics to renewable technologies.

In practice, ibd Law will:

• Identify the asset that is to be exploited
• Identify the appropriate exploitation method – licensing, co-branding, brand extensions, joint R & D, joint ventures or other collaborations
• Draft and negotiate the relevant agreements

Valuation and Conversion – understanding the value of the intangible asset and transforming it into cash

Valuation of your intangible asset aids corporate governance and ensures regulatory and accounting compliance. It also allows for:

• Allocation of resources for marketing
• Determination of pricing strategies
• Communication with stakeholders such as investors, employees and customers
• Appropriate levels of insurance cover

Conversion enables realisation of the intangible asset into cash. This is achieved in a number of ways:

• private funding (from venture capital, private equity, banks)
• public funding (on AIM, Plus, Nasdaq etc)
• through the sale of the asset (eg licensing or assignment) or sale of the business or company
• securitisation through the issue of bonds and other forms of securities

Our Capabilities

ibd Law believes that it is critical that every business should consider implementing appropriate management strategies for its intangible assets.  To help clients in the process, ibd Law will conduct a complimentary IP Audit to identify the key assets and provide recommendations as to how they are managed and their associated costs.

If you would like to know more about this service, please contact ibdlaw@ibd-uk.com.