Making intellectual property work for business - World Intellectual ...

Annexes | Case studies
United
Kingdom
Intellectual Assets
Centre, Scotland
■■
Providing consultancy
services
http://www.ia-centre.org.uk
United States
United States
Council for
International
Business (USCIB)
■■
Advocating policy
http://www.uscib.org
68 Making intellectual property work for business
Intellectual Assets Centre (IA Centre) 31 , based in Glasgow and supported by the Scottish
Government, offers different online tools in order to help companies realize their potential
through managing their IP assets. The IA Register facilitates the identification of IP assets,
and can be used as a checklist to generate ideas of what types of IP assets the company
may own. The IA Audit helps companies identify, audit and appraise the IP assets
contained within their business. The information can be used as an appendix to the
business plan as a tool to review companies´ actions to safeguard or exploit its IP assets.
The IA Questionnaire is designed to clarify how the company has evolved over time, with
core competencies and markets changing, hence the development of IP assets over
time. This tool does not require any specialist knowledge to complete it, but it will have
most benefit if it is reviewed with an IP asset adviser. Finally, the IA Benchmarking Tool is
a simple web-based tool to be completed in 20 minutes. The tool requires online registration
and provides online assistance. The result is a record of IP asset ownership, which
shows the importance of each asset to the overall value of the company and helps it to
prioritize areas of action. This tool can also be used as an internal benchmarking tool by
tracking the company scores over time and as an instrument to compare the company
to others in similar industries/of similar sizes.
USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development
and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent
regulation. Its members include top U.S.-based global companies and professional
services firms from every sector of the U.S. economy, with operations in every region
of the world. With a unique global network encompassing the ICC, the International
Organization of Employers (IOE), and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to
the OECD (BIAC), USCIB provides U.S. business views to policy makers and regulatory
authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment.
USCIB addresses a wide range of policy and regulatory issues through 26 full
committees and a multitude of task forces. The USCIB Intellectual Property Committee
has been active in the promotion and improvement of IPR protection and enforcement
worldwide. USCIB has long-recognized that IP protection is one of the central
public policy pillars for the rapidly changing knowledge-based 21st century economy,
spurring innovation, stimulating investments in innovation, and disseminating technology
and knowledge in socially beneficial ways. Thus, the USCIB Intellectual Property
Committee provides a forum for achieving a U.S. business consensus on key international
policy objectives in IP protection so that this position can then be taken to its
affiliates and other international institutions across the globe as the unified vision of U.S.
industry on these crucial and timely matters.
31 No Chamber is known to currently provide this type of service. However, due to the importance of
such a service, the experience of the Intellectual Assets Centre, a public provider in Scotland, has been
analyzed. All information is based on the IA Centre webpage www.ia-centre.org.uk.