Legal Protection, Consolidation and Evaluation of IP in Academic Units

Abstract

Intellectual property (IP) is one such legal area that has evolved with time. IP is very precious in today's economy, and its existence becomes crucial if the creator of such IP is unaware of the commercial potential. The IP creator might not have the expertise to understand the economic intricacies which an IP possesses hold. To understand these economic intricacies and to value IP, experts have suggested various IP valuation methods. However, for any IP valuation to follow, the first step is IP evaluation. The statutes' legal protection does not have much to offer when determining IPs' economic potential. In this paper, the authors have tried to pull all the relevant data concerning IP protection and IP management (IPM) of two of the Institute of National Importance (INIs) academic units and tried to structure the same in an IPM Audit Model. Thus, the system will help IP creators to self-evaluate their IP once they are legally protected. The authors have adopted an exploratory, case study research methodology. The research's focus is limited to 8 types of IP generated by an academic institution. The study demonstrates an exploration of the IPM audit framework to reduce the complexity involved in IP evaluation, which substantiates the legal protection offered to IPs.