April, 2009: IPR policy and IPR strategy are very important asset management. A business entity must decide its IPR policy about proper training, protection, infringement, confidentiality of trade
secrets and should follow proper accounting standards for accounting and valuation of its IP's with periodic review of its policy by IP Audit and other managerial tools. Commercialization of IP is also part of IP policy and different methods of commercialization through licensing or assignment are part of IP strategy. It is very important to select the countries in which patent has to be obtained and proper policy has to be laid down to file international apl-'II'-'U~IVII uncer PCT Route to claim priority. It has been observed that due to non-patenting of technology in important countries for a particular product or a process, there has been copying and counterfeiting of the technology but the patentee is unable to take action for infringement. The concerned entity gets a lower valuation of its patented technology if patent has not been obtained in the concerned countries where there is good market potentiality.

Therefore there exists a close nexus between the IP Commercialization and the IP Strategy for obtaining patent in several countries. Once the business entities fail to obtain patent within the due time of 30-31 months of the first priority, it can never get the patent in the national phase throughout the lifetime of the patent. Similarly one has to be careful while buying technology from others. If a particular technology is purchased or obtained by license, a proper due diligence should be conducted about the validity of the patent and in cases where a technology, for example, is patented in USA but not in India, there is no need to pay for license fee or royalty as the technology is available in the public domain and the use of the technology will not amount to infringement. However due care needs to be taken before export of the goods produced by using such technology in the countries where the original patentee has obtained the patent. One has to be careful about subsequent grant of patent for similar technology by the inventor, otherwise the same may lead to infringement and litigation.

However, the subject of IP Commercialization and use of technology and payment of royalty fees or consideration would also depend upon the valid claim of the patent which need to be established with proper IP due diligence. Periodic IP Audit will help the organization to have effective IP portfolio management. It is estimated that US companies alone looses more than US$ one trillion due to under utilization or poor commercialization of the patent itself leaving aside the value loss on trademark and copyrights. On the other hand, IBM has been able to generate enormous wealth by recognizing the myriad ideas lying dormant in its labs and thereby increasing its income from royalty by 3300% over a period of 10 years in the 1990's through IP commercialization. Therefore it is very important in today's competitive world driven by knowledge economy where IP is the key to create value in the organization, and therefore the need to manage the IP portfolio effectively. ITAG provides all such services under one umbrella for developing an effective IPR Policy, IP Valuation, IP Commercialization, IP audit and so on with its expert team dealing with IP management.

--Dr. D. R. Agarwal