1. What is an Intellectual Property Audit?

Just as a physician examines the physical health of a person, IP Audit evaluates the health of a company's intellectual property portfolio. It includes the recommendation of actions needed to maintain those assets and a plan for their most economical use. The audit team also reviews the company's employment and disclosure policies to determine if they sufficiently protect the company's assets.

2. What are the benefits of an IP Audit?

Periodically evaluating your company's IP portfolio helps in preventing asset losses, such as expiration of patents due to non-paid maintenance fees, and also assist you make decisions for the use of your assets. In addition to it, a review of employment agreements exposes any risk of employees leaving with valuable trade secrets.

3. Our organisation is not engaged in research and development activities. Can IP audit be useful for us?

This is only a misconception that these audits are only needed by companies engaged in scientific research and developing complex industrial patents, or perhaps those that rely heavily on sophisticated trade secrets. The reality is that in today's information economy, virtually every business relies on a broad array of intellectual property assets — copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, and software licenses. Equally important, these assets are no longer stored in the research and development department. Instead, every area of the corporation is involved in the use of intellectual property, including human resources, IT, marketing, sales, and research.

4. Who performs the IP Audit?

Each IP audit team of attorneys and legal professionals is headed by a senior associate having substantial intellectual property law experience. This team meets with the company's representatives to determine its preferences in conducting the IP audit and the location of the IP assets to be audited.

5. When should an IP Audit be performed?

Since most companies are continually adding to their IP portfolios, periodic audits ensure that the company's new intellectual property assets are accounted for and mature IP assets are not lost through the passage of time. After an initial comprehensive audit, yearly follow-up audits ensure continued compliance with the company's IP policies. Companies also perform "event-driven" audits, such as for due diligence prior to transfer of assets.

6. What is the cost of performing an IP Audit?

Every IP Audit is tailored to the specific needs of the company. The cost of every audit is based on several factors, including the size of the company's IP portfolio and the desired scope of assets to be audited. However, the cost of not having an IP audit performed could be far greater.

For further questions or information about intellectual property audits, kindly contact us at ipr@saraswatnet.com