ABSTRACT
So far this book has concentrated mainly on the legal background to and procedures for the acquisition of intellectual property rights as a way of protecting new technology and design and on some of the specific management decisions which have to be taken on several questions such as ownership of rights and deciding whether to take out legal protection in any given case. In the light of these earlier matters, it is now possible to make some rather more generalized points about certain aspects of the research and development department of a company. We will look at these in turn, though of course they interact markedly.
