Image Copyright Mokra. Courtesy RBGStock

In my last post, I discussed the places where ad and marketing agencies might find their intellectual capital, some of which might be converted into additional revenue streams, higher professional fees, or enhanced value to a potential purchaser of the Agency.

Once the Agency has decided to evaluate its intellectual capital, it needs an easy system, or roadmap, to identifying the intellectual property assets, prioritizing them, protecting them, then monetizing them. The Agency can’t spot its best opportunities, or make decisions about asset protection, without the right information. For the sake of this discussion, I’ll refer to the process of identifying and prioritizing the assets as an “audit,” despite the lack of popularity of the term.

Use a simple audit process to inventory and prioritize the Agency’s intellectual capital.

In this post, I describe a simple audit process the Agency can perform internally, or with the help of its legal counsel, to inventory and prioritize its intellectual capital. The result of the audit should be an information tool to help the Agency make some decisions about which assets need protection, or which hold the most promise for profit.

Step One: Inventory the Assets

The Agency needs an inventory of its intellectual assets. Use the general categories discussed in last week’s post as a starting point to identify types of assets, adding whichever additional categories the Agency thinks are relevant. Work on one category of assets at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed. Also, keep in mind that this is not the stage of the process where the Agency should be making any value or financial judgments about the assets – that comes later, during the prioritization phase of the process.

For each identified asset in the category, determine and record the following information:

– Who created the asset, and is the creator/author an employee of the Agency?
– When was the asset created?
– Is the asset currently in use by the Agency for any purpose? If so, how is it used?
– What documentation or records exist about the asset, and where is that documentation located? (design files, software code, etc.)
– Are there any trademark, copyright or patent registrations in place for the asset?
– Are there any contracts or agreements in place about the asset?

Use whatever system of recording the Agency likes best or is most comfortable with to record the information. It can be anything as simple as an Excel spreadsheet, or can be recorded as an internal project in the Agency’s project management system.

Step Two: Prioritize the Assets

The term “prioritize” is admittedly subjective and values-loaded. How does the Agency determine whether something is a priority?

However, it’s important to make an attempt to prioritize your intellectual capital so the Agency can make some business decisions about which assets it should make investments to protect, and for which assets the Agency should pursue potential monetization. To that end, here are some questions to ask to help the Agency prioritize this work:

– If the asset was used or misappropriated by a competitor, would that harm the Agency or give the competitor an unfair economic advantage?
– Is the asset one of the unique competencies or offerings that distinguish the Agency to Clients?
– Was the asset created by a third party, such as a freelancer or strategic alliance firm?
– Is the asset a foundation on which any of the Agency’s other products or services stand?

And, perhaps the most challenging question to answer:

– Does the Agency believe the asset can be offered to others in exchange for money?

Assets for which the Agency can answer at least one of these questions “Yes” are priority assets. If the Agency can answer “Yes” to more than one of these questions, then the assets are high priority assets for protection efforts.

Protect Before Monetizing

It’s tempting to pursue potential monetization of an asset before the Agency invests additional cash into protecting its intellectual property. If you’re a regular reader of Legal + Creative, you know that my point of view is that this is a reactive, rather than a proactive, asset protection strategy. Also, my experience is that it’s also ultimately a more expensive strategy.

In our next post, I’ll review the most commonly needed intellectual property asset protection methods an Agency will need to secure its intellectual capital.

Was this post helpful? Share your thoughts or experiences about Agency IP in the Comments Section below – we would love to hear them. Also, we love subscribers! Sign up to receive new content regularly by subscribing here.