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Can you think of a successful business that does not use a trademark for its goods or services? There are at least three good reasons why you can’t.

Trademarks serve three main purposes. First, a trademark identifies the source of a good or service. This allows consumers to differentiate between the goods or services offered by more than one manufacturer or service provider.

Second, a trademark should guarantee consistent quality. This allows consumers to associate goods or services offered under a particular trademark with a standard of quality; this does not mean that the goods or services offered under a certain trademark are necessarily of the best quality. Rather, it gives consumers the comfort of knowing that any goods or services purchased under the same trademark as previous goods or services will be of the same general quality. For example, the Big Mac you buy at a McDonald’s in New York City should be of the same general quality as a Big Mac you buy at a McDonald’s in San Francisco.

Third, a trademark is a conduit for effective advertising. Not only can the trademark itself be the word, design, or device used in advertising, but the goods and services bearing that trademark act as advertisements themselves. For example, your prominently displayed trademark on the packaging of your product builds the association between your trademark and your company in the minds of consumers.

Before you can understand what intellectual property management is all about you first need to have a basic understanding of intellectual property. Intellectual property is any piece of work that has been created by an individual or company, such as industrial property like inventions, trademarks and designs to copyrighted materials of artistic works like literature, music, photography and so on.

WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization defines intellectual property by stating: “Intellectual property relates to items of information or knowledge, which can be incorporated into tangible objects at the same time in an unlimited number of copies at different locations anywhere in the world. The property is not in those copies but in the information or knowledge reflected in them. Intellectual property rights are also characterized by certain limitations, such as limited duration in the case of copyright and patents.”

When it comes to copyright and patents the copyright protects intellectual property that is meant to be copied, like music or books, while patents are meant to protect the method of creating a product, for example the layout of a circuit board in a cell phone.

It must be noted that an idea is not considered a form of intellectual property. The idea will only become an intellectual property when work is been applied it, like writing the idea down or designing it. The more work you put into the idea the more of an intellectual property it will become.

Now that we know what intellectual property is, it is pretty easy to understand that any form of intellectual property will involve a significant amount of paperwork, deadlines, docketing, maintenance, communication with patent offices and other time-consuming matters. All of which often requires immediate attention followed by prompt responses. As the intellectual property portfolio grows the many responsibilities and administrative requirements can become a full time job just to manage them. Trying to stay on top of all matters can become quite taxing for a new company or individual and can obviously detract from free time which would be more beneficially spent coming up with new ideas. This is where intellectual property management will come into play.

Intellectual property management is really all about identifying your intellectual property assets and maximizing the profits of your portfolio. Your intellectual property management policies should be consistent with your overall business strategy, while at the same time helping you to identify opportunities and manage risks to make business decisions in an organized and effective manner. With a properly developed intellectual property management policy in place you will be able to capitalize on your portfolio including generating revenues from previously unused intellectual property assets.

As a new company or individual this may all sound daunting. If you have been acquiring patents and growing your portfolio it may be time to enlist the help of a professional to manage your intellectual property for you. They will be able to help you recognize opportunities for licensing and other revenue generating ideas that you may not have be aware of at all. There are many companies that specialize in intellectual property management but before signing any contract make sure you do your research and ask for some recommendations from their previous and current clients.