ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how intellectual assets such as patents, copyright, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, and so on can be understood and controlled in developing innovation. It describes the basic functioning of such assets. When innovations are discussed, it is often just from a point of patents but other forms of intellectual properties such as design protection copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets are often important parts of protection of innovations. Patents are costly to apply for and maintain; this makes it important to estimate the value of a potential patent. Qualitative measures that are easy to use to estimate the potential value of a patent are described. It is important to look at the value of a patent in relation to a particular owner. The value will differ depending on the competence of owning enterprise, but it will also differ depending on the strategy and future development of the owning enterprise. Cost valuation methods that are much more difficult to implement reliably are also described in the chapter. Protection of software and how this differs from the protection of hardware products is described. The chapter goes on with showing how management of such assets should be a part of an innovation strategy of any innovative organisation.
