What is an IP Audit? 

An Intellectual Property (IP) Audit is defined as a systematic review of the IP assets owned, used or acquired by a business.

An IP Audit allows a business not only to IP find but also to evaluate the health of a company’s intellectual property portfolio with a view to uncover under-utilized IP assets, to identify any threats to a company’s bottom line and to enable business to determine actions needed and to devise informed strategies that will maintain and improve the company’s IP Assets, its market position and its audit management.

By conducting an IP audit, you will find the answers to the how to ip question and can also establish:

• Whether or not your IP rights are registered;
• Whether you have any intellectual property issues and what to do to address them;
• Who owns the rights and, if you not, identify any conditions that apply to their use;
• An assessment of whether your IP is being used effectively;
• Whether your rights are being challenged or threatened by others;
• Whether you have an effective IP management and maintenance plan in place; and
• Records of your IP creation and ownership.

Why is it important that you carry out an IP Audit?

An  audit internal helps you uncover and prevent many “business nightmares”, that ultimately impact on your business revenue and profits. The "nightmare" may be a contract that was never signed with an independent contractor, leaving copyright in the work resting with the contractor. It may be a forgotten founder or collaborator or a person who was in the room helping to work out the initial inventive leaps, that led to the company’s core innovations and then left the company without signing the proper documents. It may be a Non-Disclosure (NDA), that terminates too early or that was never signed or a patent application, that was filed too late. Sometimes, it may be a missing trademark search.

Insufficient attention to sound IP practices and controls can, under close examination by third parties (and their lawyers), strip your IP portfolio and diminish your company’s valuation. 

What  to do?

1.The first step is to identify what IP assets are used by the business and how important those assets are to that business. A checklist of all registered and unregistered IP and any IP licences to third parties, licences from third parties and cross licences should also be identified. Also, included in the list should be details of in-house work manuals, databases, recipes, franchise agreements, publications and product/process know-how. Third parties rights should be identified. The IP should then be scrutinised to determine the owner, whether the rights are registered or otherwise protected via confidentiality agreements and enforceable and whether they are in use. The cost and legal implications of simply maintaining a registration of IP should be considered, particularly, if the IP is not used. Anassutzi & Co ltd has created a very easy to use audit template. You can request your free copy by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Following our audit template without the need for a specific audit software, you will be asking and finding out whether:   

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  • you have any registered trade marks, designs or patents and general compliance services;
  • you know when they are due for renewal;
  • you have strong, enforceable non-disclosure (confidentiality) agreements;
  • you own the IP you are using and whether you can prove it. Whether you have the contracts and other proof required by a court of law;
  • you have registered your business name as a trade mark;
  • there are processes or knowledge critical and unique to your business success and whether you have protected them;
  • you have signed agreements with key personnel, contractors, consultants or other external suppliers, which assign any IP they develop, when working for you, to your business;
  • you have valuable customer lists and other databases;
  • you know who has written and designed your marketing and promotional material, including printed brochures and leaflets;
  • your firm has policies and procedures in place specifically to manage and protect your IP; and
  • you have a staff education programme, that covers the protection and management of your IP.

2.  The second step is to try to estimate the value of these items. In doing so, a good question to ask is how much it will cost to replace them if lost, what the anticipated income from exploitation of the underlying IP is over, for example, the next five years and how the underlying IP is being used.

 

 

3.  The third and final step involves analysing the value of pursuing an action in respect of a particular piece of infringed IP; formulating an IP strategy for the future with the objective of ensuring that the company’s IP assets are used, maintained and enforced effectively and appropriately.

How to do it? 

The first step is to take our free self-help preliminary audit template to obtain an overview of your IP assets.

To request your free copy of audit template, email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it putting in the subject field “IP Audit” and entering your details, your business name and brief description of your business. Following that, please email us your results; we will analyse your findings and discuss together, if a more comprehensive due diligence is required. 

What do you get? 

At the end of the self-help IP Audit you will have a good idea, not only of your IP assets, but also how they are created and what are the weak points/risks. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to formulate a plan to maximize use of the company’s IP assets.

This exercise must be undertaken periodically and regularly. Evaluating your company’s IP portfolio will help you build a strong brand, prevent asset losses and help you make decisions for the best use of your asset.

Summary of external/internal parties, that may impact on your IP 

At Anassutzi & Co, we provide valuable global strategic advice based on our understanding of the business environment in which your company is operating.  Through our business strategy sector, we facilitate the strategic planning process for your IP assets and co-ordinate all the above specialists from analysis through to planning and implementation of proper IP management. 

We, therefore, aid business development by helping you review the opportunities, expand your business in the light of market conditions, financial constraints, management relations issues and consider external factors such as legislation and government development incentives. 

We can also help you build organisational competence and enhance the skills of your people, through appropriate training of IP identification and evidencing. This includes providing valuable advice on the most appropriate and commercially sensible management structure to achieve your objectives.

When your IP rights are mainly in computer software and other related technology

Activities undertaken during the IP Audit include:

·         Reviewing contracts with employees and independent contractors to determine if IP rights in all developed software are actually vested with the company;

·         Reviewing licence and support agreements in respect of proprietary software of third parties to determine if all licences are legally effective, current, and permit the use of the software which the company had made;

·         Preparing questionnaires with a view to establishing that the company has not assigned ownership of computer software IP to any third parties; and interviews by the legal counsel with the Chief Information Officer to clarify any uncertainties and agree a way forward.