July 2007: Intellectual Property Management is gaining significance os the value of intangible assets contributed to as high as 74% of the total consideration in the recent mergers and acquisitions. The World Bank studies also confirm that intangible assets comprise almost eighty percent of the global wealth in developed economies.

The global investment summits and IP auctions conducted by various organizations including Ocean Tomo justifies the huge value of transactions taking place in technology transfer which also bridges the gap between the inventors and the investors. The issues relating to due diligence of Patents, Trademarks and other IP assets is an essential item in every kind of technology transfer e.g. licensing, franchising, sale, auction, securitization and take over by way of amalgamations or mergers.
It is therefore very important for any business enterprise in today's globalised world to identify and protect its intellectual property rights. The increasing volume of international trade and investment envisages the need for IPR protection not only within the national boundaries of the inventor but across the globe in order to protect the invention from piracy.

The TRIPS regUlations of WTO have obliged most of the member countries to comply with uniform standard of IPR protection. Indian patent laws have undergone several changes in the past few years and the country has become fully TRIPS compliant from Jan 1,2005 with the introduction of product patent in pharmaceuticals, chemicals and drugs. The earlier perception of IPR consultants has undergone drastic changes from mere drafting, filing and prosecution of the trademark and patent application to a whole range of other services in the nature of patent portfolio management, landscaping, IP audit, due diligence and IP valuation.

The increasing international integration of the economic factors demand due compensation for research and development and proper environment for motivation of innovation of ideas and technologies are the primary need of the hour. This would require the globallP community to understand each other through a common discipline and networking. There is need for co operation and better understanding amongst the IP professionals and consultants through the architecture of WIPO and WTO and also through private initiatives. The globalization has also brought in lot of new challenges before the IP professionals and consultants to have adequate infrastructure with a full proof data security arrangement as per the requirement of international standards such as ISO 27001 for information security management system.

Outsourcing and off shoring of IP services have enabled IP asset management at competitive cost. India is gradually becoming a hub for outsourcing in IP asset management services. The potential of IP asset management services as a part of legal process outsourcing (LPG) remains very high. The total estimated market value of LPO industry is approximately US $250 billion.

ITAG is the first company in the Eastern India and amongst the first five in India with highly skilled man power and latest infrastructure facilities to provide one stop solution to all kinds of IP related problems with its networking of more than 500 offices within Indio and several overseas offices. We believe in building alliances and networking amongst the global IP community with an interface with the regUlating agencies in order to cater to the needs of growing knowledqe economy in the bordertess world.

--Dr. D. R. Agarwal