What are Intellectual Assets?

Intellectual assets refer to intangible assets that are the result of intellectual and creative activity. These assets can take many forms, including knowledge, ideas, inventions and artistic works, as well as more intangible assets like brand reputation, customer relationships and knowledge.

Intellectual assets can be very valuable to a business as they can be used to create new products, generate revenue and provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

It is, therefore, important to properly protect and manage intellectual assets in order to maximise their value. This can be done through a variety of means, including intellectual property (IP) laws which give the owner exclusive rights to use, sell, and license the asset.

The following are the primary types of IP that are available:

1. Copyright: Copyright is a legal concept that gives creators of original artistic and literary works the exclusive right to control how their work is used and distributed. This includes the right to reproduce the work, distribute copies, and create derivative works based on the original.
2. Trademarks: A trademark gives legal protection to distinctive words, phrases, symbols and other designs that identify a product or service. Trademarks can include logos, brand names and slogans that are normally used to identify and distinguish a product or service from those of other companies.
3. Patents: A patent provides inventors with legal protection for their invention for a limited period of time. In exchange for obtaining this protection, inventors must publicly disclose the details of their invention. Patents can be granted for new and useful inventions or for improvements to existing inventions. They can protect a wide variety of innovations, including new products, processes, and technologies.

Trade Secret

Not all intellectual assets can or should be protected by IP. In these instances, other means of protections should be used. For example, trade secrets are a common way to protect intellectual assets.

A trade secret protects proprietary information that give a company a competitive advantage by taking steps to ensure that they are kept secret. This information incudes formulas, recipes, techniques, processes, and more.

Other types of Intellectual Assets

Some intellectual assets are much more difficult to protect. For example brand reputation, customer relationships, supplier relationships etc. are developed over time and there is no formal way to protect them. These types of intellectual assets are highly dependant on the business ensuring that it is doing all that it can to ensure that these assets are maintained and evolve over time.

Using a SWOT Analysis

Conducting a SWOT analysis can be useful in identifying intellectual assets and how they impact on the success of the business. For example, the Strengths of the business can highlight potential intellectual assets that need to be protected. Opportunities may show where the business’s intellectual assets can help it capitalise on these opportunities. Weakness and Threats on the other hand can show potential vulnerabilities in the intellectual assets. Knowing this help to develop strategies to protect them.