What Will The Costs Be?

Companies must always weigh the potential value of an IP asset against the costs of securing, enforcing, and maintaining that right, the value that the IP asset brings or could bring to the company, and the possibility of actually realising potential value from that asset.

In securing the IP rights you will incur direct costs arising from payment of official fees as well as those that will come about for payment of professional services.

Official fees are fees that are paid to the IP office at which the right is registered. These can include the fee for filing the application, for the grant of the right, to initiate official searches & examinations etc. IPOS’ official fees for registration of trade marks, patents and designs are provided here.

There would be fees incurred in each country the right is secured, as well as for international applications.

Costs for professional services you would incur, vary depending on a variety of factors including the complexity of the application (for example, Will your patent agent have to sieve through tons of documents and conduct numerous interviews to obtain the key inventive concept behind your product?), the filing strategy you adopt (for example, Do you intend to file for protection in countries which require a translation to the official language?) etc. You might also need to obtain the professional services of agents in each respective country you wish to register in.

Securing the right is only one aspect of your costs. You must also bear in mind that enforcing your right would also involve costs – in taking action against an infringer for example.

Many companies consider investing in IP protection to be a waste of time and money bearing the above. Do you see it that way, too? It depends on what your definition of “costs” is.

Rather than “financial costs” alone, you should take into account “opportunity costs”. The advantages of obtaining registered rights which are properly managed may far outweigh these disadvantages, and this is where you move beyond looking at costs in terms of dollars and cents and start counting your opportunity costs. Take the example of Ya Kun featured in our case study – they have recognised the need to protect that all important trade mark to prevent copycats from riding on the company’s reputation.

Be honest with your IP professional what your bottom-line is. Sit down with them and get a full picture what your costs can be and plot your IP strategy based on that. Supreme Imaging is an example of a company who have not only grown into IP, but also learnt to balance costs and benefits in deciding how to continue getting value from their IP assets.