ERM & Intellectual property

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 Intellectual property can be defined as any authentic concepts, ideas, innovations. Creative

works, discoveries, and designs. Just like all other types of works they also call for protection,

and they can be protected through the following legal methods

 Patents

 Trademarks

 Copyrights

 Trade secrets.

Patent

A patent is used to protect an invention by giving the owner authentic ownership rights. A patent

prohibits any other person from using or reproducing the invention without the consent of the

owner. Basicaicalyy there are three types of patents, which include design patents, utility patents,

and plant patents. Patents can be used to initiate legal action against anyone breaching an original

owner's rights. They are issued on the basis of fists come, first served, and it is advisable for

those seeking such protection to do so at the earliest opportune time possible. Patents involve

protracted processes involving conceptualization, innovation disclosure, and patent application

stages. Patents can be very expensive to acquire and maintain, depending on their nature. Patent

Costs vary depending on the jurisdiction from which they are applied, their complexity, and

attorney compensation. Standard investor patents cost $4000 on average, while more complex

ones cost more within the united states. Patents usually last between 14- 20 years under the laws

of the united states depending on their nature and state jurisdiction.

Trademarks
Trademarks can be defined as words, symbols, phrases, logos, smells, sounds, designs, and

patterns that are exclusively associated with a particular individual or organization. They are

legally binding, and they authentically distinguish the subject brand from others. Trademark laws

in the united states require interested parties to research and establish zero conflict of interests

with any other pre-registered trademarks. They also require a clear and well-detailed

representation of the trademark that a person wishes to legally protect. They are useful in

building brands and customer loyalty, and normally they expire after a duration of 10 years. The

costs of trademarks include $300-$500 for registration of a single item and similar costs for their

maintenance on an annual basis.

Copyrights

Copyrights can be defined as protection documents for original works of authorship. They

protect creative works that mostly involve expression, for example, music, films, software,

artistic works, choreographies, paintings, architectural drawings, and so on. They grant the

owner legal and legitimate rights to the content in the subject. They also grant the owner rights to

control the reproduction of their works, distribution, modification, and any other activity or

element related to their work. They also give them the ability to take legal action over offenders

related to their works. Copyrights last throughout the life of the owner and for 70 more years

after the owner is dead under the laws of the united states. They are relatively inexpensive, and

they cost around $25-120$ to register to depend on various circumstances, and they bear nom

maintenance costs under the law.

Trade secrets
Trade secrets can be defined as confidential, proprietary strategies, formulas, procedures,

devices, processes, and systems that give a company a competitive advantage in the market.

Trade secrets are not legally provided for under the law; neither are they prohibited. At such,

they do not have any immediate costs or duration guarantees as all that is tailor-designed and

implemented to suit the needs of the owner. They are enforced using tools such as non-disclosure

agreements, secrecy agreements, propriety information agreements, post-employment restrictive

covenants, restricted access policies, and confidential disclosure agreements.

The University of Minnesota primarily uses patents to protect new technologies within

their scopes. They offer patent services for devices, biological materials, compositions, software,

and copyrightable materials…... These patents enable the innovators to commercialize their work

and gain revenue out of it. Patents are an effective way for the university to protect and promote

technological innovations since they are the most powerful form of legal intellectual property

protection. They easily enable the university to monitor the progress of patented works in their

portfolio.

There are two categories of methods used to value intellectual property, which includes

Qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative methods utilize available measurable

information to provide monetary worth. These methods attempt to establish the general value of

the innovation, replacement/sale/compensation costs, and all the financial implications related to

the monetary value of the innovation. They include cost-based evaluation, market-based

evaluation, income-based evaluation, and options based evaluations, which all revolve around

the finances of the innovation/asset in different dimensions. The other classification of

intellectual property valuation methods is the qualitative methods that utilize available data to

give the innovation an abstract/nonmonetary value. They attempt to establish the strategic impact
of the business, its impact on the markets, potential growth, and all nonmonetary and

nonquantifiable aspects of the innovation. The methods include rating evaluations, value

indicators evaluations, and competitive advantage evaluations. It is worthwhile to note that both

qualitative and quantitative methods are often interdependent, and different entities use them

interchangeably for the best and the most optimal evaluations. They are all important, and

evaluation data quired from the use of either of them is used as an important point of reference

for decision making.

 References

https://www.upcounsel.com/intellectual-property-protection

https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/the-4-main-types-of-intellectual-property-and-

related-costs

https://www.heerlaw.com/determining-value-intellectual-property

https://research.umn.edu/units/techcomm/university-inventors/report-invention#