The methods and perspectives for the management of intellectual property

Quite often, the entrepreneurs using the subject matters of intellectual property in the manufacture and in the activity of the organization assume mistakenly that such very use is already the management of intellectual property. As correctly indicated by G. Azgaldov and A. Kostin: “The management of a subject matter is a complex of the arrangements ensuring the process of transferring the subject matter w from state А₀ to predetermined state А₁ within predetermined period of time DT_pred .”[1] That is, the management of intellectual property is the use of the subject matters to achieve the particularly set goals within a particular period, but not some abstract action related to intellectual property. Obviously, in this case, the primary task becomes determining a final goal for carrying out which the subject matter will be used. Increasing the consumer demand, improving the quality or technical indicators – all this can be achieved as a result of the competent management by the creation and use of the intellectual property elements. Hence, the prospects of the management of intellectual property are reduced in general to a favorable and timely achievement of the goals set. At the same time, the success and timeliness are equally important. Taken into account the current rates of the development of the human activity spheres, it is logical to assume that the delay, for example, in using the latest technology, will probably lead to the loss of a competitive advantage and to a reduction of the consumer interest to the product and the company.

It is interesting that to gain income from the use of the results of intellectual activity and the means of individualization it is sometimes enough the availability of even one or two subject matters, which are used actively. Lately, the most popular and successful beginning of the entrepreneurial activities has become the launch of various start-ups; the manufacture and sale of something new, fundamentally different from the already existing products is a characteristic of exactly such projects. An example of a successfully developing start-up can be the beginning of the release and sale by RawLife of nut and fruit natural bars. If to consider a reason for the success of the said enterprise from the point of view of intellectual property, then everything is simple: the bars are manufactured from particular ingredients according to the special recipes that can be patented as inventions or protected as a manufacturing secret, in addition to this a rememberable trademark “R.A.W. LIFE” is use, which is translated into English as “raw life” and which inform the consumer about the use of the ingredients without heat treatment, what allows preserving the useful substances contained therein. Thus, the competent use of only two subject matters of intellectual property has allowed the enterprise to gain steady income and to develop actively, while expanding a “line” of the products.

Regarding the methods for the management of intellectual property, depending on the priority of a particular element of the management of intellectual property, the following can be distinguished:

• An innovative methodological approach. There is an assertion in the basis that the competitive advantage can be achieved only as a result of an inventive activity and constant introducing new technologies, so the management should be carried out taking into account a top priority of the innovative element. The main source of the costs in this case will become financing innovations.
• An information and reproductive approach. The adherents of this type of the management believe that the dominant role in the modern world is played by the unique information and by sharing the information; consequently, the success of the management of intellectual property depends on the competent use of the relevant information resources. Accordingly, the priority is to ensure the regime of a commercial secret in the enterprise.
• The marketing methodological approach according to which, ultimately, the factor determining profitability of the enterprise is the consumer’s interest. Since the buyer makes a decision whether to purchase the product or not, and the management strategy should be determined focusing on the desires and interests of the consumer.
• A process approach. The followers of this type of the management believe that the creation and use of intellectual property is an integrated process and all its stages should be taken into account.
• A system methodological approach. In accordance with this method, the management of intellectual property is a complex of the multidirectional measures, and the joint use of the elements of the system will lead to the achievement of a positive result.

The detailed analysis of the above approaches allows us to conclude on the greatest efficiency of such methods for the management of intellectual property as the process and system methods. Such assertion is based on the fact that while applying other management options, some one factor (innovative, informational or consumer) is put at the head of the process and this seems to be not quite right.

N. Samojlenko notes: “Considering the management of intellectual property from the point of view of a system analysis, it is revealed that the management system receives at the input the material and intellectual resources that are converted in the process of the management taking into account the influence of the external environment and realized in the form of an innovative product or a commercialized subject matter of intellectual property ... .”[2] That is, this process is a complex of the arrangements to convert some resources to the others, and to use them further taking into account the existing external and internal circumstances.

A significant stage in the management of the intellectual property elements within an organization is the realization that this is an endless and cyclical process, the success of which depends on the implementation of a complex of the arrangements for forecasting, planning, creating, using, accounting the subject matters, etc. In the conditions of the modern market economy, the constant flow of the new information and the glut of the products in the world, it becomes apparent that in order to achieve a competitive advantage and to gain profit from the use of the subject matters of intellectual property, it is not enough, for example, to patent one invention and to use only it. It is necessary to ensure a special circulation of the intellectual property elements and a transition from one stage of the management to another one in the mode of a parallel functioning of these stages. Thus, it is just the combination of the process and system methods that is the most universal. The management of intellectual property taking into account all stages of the creation and application of the subject matters of intellectual property will be carried out according to the process approach. And in accordance with the system approach, the management will use the information, innovative and marketing resources.