IP Practices: Why R&D Teams Should Include IP in Their Innovation Strategy

IP Practices : Why R&D Teams Should Include IP in Their Innovation Strategy- Research and development (R&D) teams and IP units are the two pillars of modern IP-centric organizations. The significance of collaboration between the two has been emphasized by scholars in the past. There are multiple benefits of such teamwork, including the successful realization of the organization’s objective. Hence, this article focuses on five reasons why R&D teams need to include IP units in their innovation strategy.

R&D and IP Teams – Realizing the Problem

An IP-centric business is largely driven by its R&D and IP teams. While the former’s job is to resolve technical challenges by identifying the best possible solutions, the latter’s aim is to tackle legal issues and challenges related to those innovations. However, sometimes, the collaboration between the two is plagued by reluctance to share information.

If these two departments continue to work in silos, it can lead to a lack of interaction, confusion and mismanagement in the organization, affecting the successful realization of the company’s objective. Therefore, businesses need to understand the need for effective collaboration between R&D and IP teams.

As mentioned above, the motives of the R&D and IP teams are different, and at times, conflicting. For example, since IP teams prioritize the legal issues of IP prosecution and IP litigation, adhering to perfect legal norms is usually their motive whereas, R&D teams put innovation and creativity above all. This may, in some cases, lead to internal organizational conflicts.

Moreover, the terminologies and technical jargons used by each of these teams are different, and this may further increase miscommunication between the two. Therefore, to avoid significant losses for an organization, these two teams require working in direct collaboration with each other.

The Need for R&D Teams to Include IP in Their Innovation Strategy

A strong and diverse IP portfolio is not only good for an organization’s business interests but also for the encouragement of R&D teams to develop innovative patentable ideas. This is why good communication is needed between IP teams and R&D teams. Moreover, IP units have invention disclosures in the form of patents and research which can benefit R&D teams.

The points below explain in detail why R&D teams need to include IP units in their innovation strategy:

Final Thoughts

It can be concluded that IP teams can lend a significant value to the R&D teams’ innovation strategy. Not only this, the collaboration between the R&D and IP team of an organization ensures that the entire process of innovation and patent development is optimized. Furthermore, the synergy significantly minimizes legal liabilities and risks from patent infringement and litigation.

Sagacious IP, a global IP research and consulting firm, is well-equipped to assist R&D teams of businesses to boost their innovation strategies. Our expertise in patent prosecution and patent landscape analysis can provide insightful inputs to R&D units to support their innovation strategies.

-Harsha Agarwal (Life Sciences) and the Editorial Team