23 July 2025

From IP Protection to Business Securing

Intellectual property is often approached from a protection perspective: how do we prevent others from copying our technology, products or ideas? That is an important question, but not the only one. For a business that innovates, another question is equally essential: how do we preserve the room to develop further, explore new markets and allow our business model to evolve?

For me, this is the distinction between IP protection and Business Securing. Protection focuses on what you have built today. Business Securing also considers what your business may need to make possible tomorrow. It does not replace protection, but places it within a broader understanding of how your business operates and develops.

This approach calls for IP decisions that evolve alongside your technology, R&D priorities and business model. It means not only identifying what you can protect yourself, but also understanding where third-party rights may limit your room for development. Business Securing therefore does not mean guaranteeing unrestricted freedom. It means identifying opportunities, dependencies and constraints early enough for them to inform your decisions.

Four principles help put this approach into practice:

• Align your IP with your business model, not the other way around. Start with the technology, knowledge and distinctive elements that create value for your business. Look beyond the current product to consider the role these elements could play in future applications and business models.
• Focus on business continuity and room for development. Identify which core technologies, knowledge, brands and rights are critical to your activities. Also consider third-party dependencies and potential constraints, so that you not only protect existing value but also keep future options open.
• Ensure your R&D and IP roadmaps share the same vision of the future. Consider how your business might develop over the next five years. Do your current IP decisions also support new products, markets or sectors? Asking this question during development makes IP an input to R&D, rather than merely an assessment afterwards.
• Use IP to realise value, too. Licensing, partnerships and collaboration can help put knowledge and technology to broader use. Consider not only what you want to protect, but also what you want to share or make accessible under appropriate conditions.

This is also the thinking behind Embedded IP Management: IP becomes part of how your business innovates and makes development decisions. Protection remains important, but is not considered in isolation from R&D, market development and future business models. The central question is then not only ‘What can we protect?’ but also ‘What room and opportunities should we help secure today for the business of tomorrow?’

Would you like to explore how IP can contribute to the continuity and development of your business? In my book ‘Securing Your Business’, I explore the distinction between protecting and securing in greater depth.