Intellectual Property Management Training Course

Participants can conduct an IP audit and identify material ownership and portfolio risks.

• IP audit scope, objectives, evidence sources and reporting boundaries
• Asset registers reconciled against contracts, filings, repositories and product records
• Chain-of-title review identifies assignment gaps, joint ownership and encumbrances
• Due diligence red flags ranked by legal exposure and transaction impact
• Freedom-to-operate searches distinguished from patentability and validity searches
• Gap analysis converts findings into remediation owners, dates and controls

Participants can assess patent protection options, search results and portfolio decisions.

• Patentability tests: novelty, inventive step, industrial applicability and excluded subject matter
• Prior-art searching uses classification codes, keywords, citations and family records
• Claim scope read through independent claims, dependent claims and specification support
• Patent prosecution milestones, office actions, amendments and continuation strategies
• Patent family mapping identifies jurisdictions, expiry dates, annuities and gaps
• Freedom-to-operate opinions framed around claims, products and target jurisdictions
• Disclosure controls protect novelty before publications, demonstrations and investor discussions

Participants can manage brand, design and copyright rights through registration and contractual controls.

• Trade mark clearance assesses registrability, prior rights, classes and confusion risk
• Nice Classification supports goods and services specifications for trade mark filings
• Distinctiveness, acquired distinctiveness, dilution and genericide affect brand protection
• Design registrations protect product appearance, graphical interfaces and packaging features
• Copyright subsistence, authorship, originality and fixation applied to business materials
• Licensing and assignment terms distinguish registered rights from unregistered rights

Participants can establish controls for confidential know-how, trade secrets and software assets.

• Trade secret criteria: secrecy, commercial value and reasonable protection measures
• Information classification separates confidential information, trade secrets and personal data
• Need-to-know access controls, NDAs and offboarding procedures preserve secrecy
• Source-code controls address repositories, access logs, escrow and contractor access
• Employee invention policies allocate ownership, disclosure duties and remuneration
• Open-source software review identifies licence obligations and code provenance
• SBOM records components, versions, licences and security responsibilities

Participants can structure commercialisation choices and evaluate key licensing and valuation terms.

• Commercialisation routes: own use, licensing, assignment, franchising and joint ventures
• Licensing term sheets define scope, territory, field, exclusivity and sublicensing
• Royalty structures compare running royalties, lump sums, milestones and minimums
• Relief-from-royalty, cost and income approaches inform IP valuation
• Technology transfer agreements allocate improvements, background IP and publication rights
• Royalty audit clauses specify records, inspection rights, underpayment and remedies

Participants can review contractual IP provisions for ownership, access and commercial risk.

• IP clauses in employment, consultancy and supplier agreements establish ownership
• Joint-development agreements define foreground IP, governance, exploitation and deadlock
• Background IP schedules prevent unintended licences during collaborative projects
• University collaboration terms address publication, student rights and research use
• M&A IP due diligence tests title, licences, disputes and change-of-control
• Representations, warranties and indemnities allocate IP transaction risk
• Escrow arrangements protect software licensees against supplier insolvency events

Participants can prioritise international protection and manage filing and renewal decisions.

• PCT route coordinates patent filings while preserving national-phase decisions
• Madrid System centralises trade mark applications, designations and portfolio changes
• Hague System supports international design registrations through designated jurisdictions
• Filing calendars integrate priority dates, deadlines, annuities and renewal decisions
• Country selection weighs market size, manufacturing, enforcement and budget
• Local counsel instructions define claim scope, evidence requirements and cost controls

Participants can select proportionate enforcement responses based on evidence, risk and commercial objectives.

• Watch services identify conflicting filings, counterfeit listings and domain-name abuse
• Cease-and-desist letters state rights, evidence, demands and reservation language
• Evidence preservation covers dated records, screenshots, purchase samples and chain custody
• Opposition, cancellation and invalidity procedures challenge registered IP rights
• ADR options compare negotiation, mediation, arbitration and court litigation
• Remedies analysis addresses injunctions, damages, accounts of profits and costs
• Enforcement escalation matrices balance commercial objectives, evidence and proportionality

Participants can establish governance, reporting and priorities for sustained IP management.

• ISO 56005 principles connect innovation management with IP management activities
• IP committee charters establish decision rights, reporting cadence and escalation
• Portfolio review dashboards track costs, status, risk, revenue and utilisation
• KPIs measure disclosure conversion, filing quality, licensing income and cycle time
• Budget scenarios compare filing, maintenance, enforcement and abandonment decisions
• Risk registers record ownership, infringement, disclosure and dependency exposures
• 90-day IP action plan assigns priorities, owners, milestones and evidence