By M. Rashid Khan

In recent years, intellectual property (IP) has become increasingly strategic. The increasing importance of IP raises questions about how to best protect and use them to achieve certain organizational objectives. It has become “imperative” that companies have well-defined strategies that capitalize on maximizing the value of the IP assets. Over a decade ago, Bill Gates stated that IP “is no longer simply the legal department’s problem. CEOs must now be able to formulate strategies that capitalize on and maximize the value of their company’s intellectual property assets to drive growth, innovation and cooperative relationships with other companies.”