Protect Your IP

As we all know, IP is a pretty big deal and is becoming moreso. Employees sign noncompete agreements pledging not to share it indiscreetly. Companies spend millions of dollars suing each other over it. And as more and more of your business shifts toward solutions, IP had better be a topic that occupies more of your time. That is, unless you want every single one of your deployments to be a custom situation.

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HEATHER CLANCY

Can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

The germ of this column came from a conversation I had earlier this year with Woo Song, chairman of IntraSphere Technologies, a regional systems integrator in New York that often competes with the likes of Accenture. These days, IntraSphere finds itself focused on projects in document management, content management and data warehousing, among other things.

IntraSphere has realized along the way that in order to compete with the big systems integrators, it needs to think about its offerings the same way they do. You wouldn't catch the likes of Accenture or BearingPoint ceding the rights to certain software willy-nilly unless it was for a pretty good business reason. IntraSphere learned this lesson over time: After deploying one custom solution for a pharmaceutical client, the team realized the software could be applied in other situations. In other words, it was a repeatable component that could be used for other clients. But IntraSphere found itself having to go back to the original customer to negotiate the rights to remarket it. Not a mistake it will soon repeat.

Other integrators haven't been so lucky. I was chewing this problem over with Oracle's group vice president of North American channels and alliances, Rauline Ochs, last week. She shared the story of one small integrator that built a mobile application for a commercial real-estate client. Unfortunately, this company failed to protect its IP in its contract and won't be able to sell it elsewhere unless it negotiates the rights back from the customer.

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As your company gets deeper into the solutions game, you need to step back and consider whether you are protecting your IP in your statements of work. Your future will depend on it.

What's your strategy around IP? HEATHER CLANCY, Editor at CRN, would love to repeat your feedback. Contact her at [email protected].