What is your Patent, Trademark or Copyright Worth?

One of the most controversial issues today: intellectual property. How to assess the value, and protect and manage the asset are topics of debate in almost every industry and market. Another not-so-evident fact: many of the fast-growth private companies have no formal process for evaluating the asset worth or protecting it.

The use and protection of intellectual property can be extremely expensive, but the lost revenue from improperly recorded and protected intellectual property can be devastating.

Not only are these companies undervaluing their assets and equity, they aren't maximizing their level of profitability and productivity from those assets. During PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of privately held businesses, less than two-thirds have a formal process in place for identifying and managing current intellectual property. Utilization of intellectual property is at less than 66%, and very few actually "license out" their technologies or intellectual property to other businesses.

Even if the intellectual property represents a significant source of revenue, many small and privately-held companies do not realize the impact that improper valuation and management can have on their bottom line and Balance Sheet totals.

Although many of these privately-held businesses utilize R&D departments, participate in joint ventures, and even invest in other businesses R&D, once the research and development phases are complete, there is no completion of the cycle.

As for revenue-generating options, many small businesses would rather "license in" established intellectual property than to try to develop a product or component from scratch. It's from this standpoint, that many companies are losing potential revenues from a lack of proper asset management. Although many in management realize the potential commercial value in their individual application, there is a vast gap in the comprehension and utilization of the commercial value in others' applications.