What is intellectual property (IP)?
Intellectual Property (IP) refers to legal rights granting exclusive use of creations of the mind — inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images used in commerce. The principal IP categories are patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, industrial designs and database rights.
For startups, IP is typically the most valuable asset class on the balance sheet. Critical hygiene includes employee and contractor IP assignment agreements, third-party-licence audits, trademark registration in key markets, patent strategy decisions and trade-secret protection programmes.