Although computer technology may not be your primary line of business, your computer technology assets may be quite substantial. Like the establishment of your data center, the formation of your intellectual property management plan starts with your business objectives. Intellectual property audits can reveal unique engineering processes, computer software, problem solving methodologies and information databases which may deserve consideration as important strategic assets of your firm.

The legal tools available for managing your intellectual property assets include copyright, trade secret, trademark and service mark protection, contract and common law as well as a variety of other legal techniques and approaches.

To be effective your intellectual property management plan must be flexible without compromising consistent decision making and creativity. For example, intellectual property management plans under which the corporate organization automatically and exclusively owns all intellectual property rights stifles the creativity of the employee/consultant who desires to participate in the benefits of the technology development process. Alternatively, the technology development reward system must be balanced with the need for the organization to control its intellectual property assets. Similar issues exist in establishing joint ventures, technology licensing, development of derivativee works, federal government contracting and engaging subcontractors.