Revitalizing Dormant IP: Strategies for Monetizing Overlooked Assets

Get Off Your |IP| Assets and Make some Money!

New product research is at the core of all manufacturing companies today, but what most don’t realize is that, regardless of industry, they are sitting on up to 50% of their intellectual property assets with no plans for their use.  This often results when a company pursues technologies specific to one product, and that technology is not a fit, causing it to be shelved with no further plans for its use.  In other words, they are missing out on any opportunity for alternative revenue streams for the company.  Many companies will intentionally sit on their IP assets in order to safeguard themselves from others who may try to pursue similar capabilities, keeping them at bay with the potential for a prior-art lawsuit, but most of these underutilized assets are a result of a mere lack of strategy or intent to monetize them. 

The Hidden Potential of Underutilized IP Assets

While the other 50% of a company’s IP assets are either deployed in products or licensed to other companies, the other half are missing out on the opportunity to be utilized for other cross-industry applications or by companies in other industries.  Many have hired consulting firms to do new market opportunity assessments for some of their more promising technologies, experiencing little or no success due to the overly standardized approach used in finding product-market fit.

Product-market fit analysis has its place when seeking new markets for existing products, however, seeking new technology markets requires a different approach altogether.  Alternatively, adopting a more technology-focused approach, i.e., a Technology-Market Fit analysis, has been shown to yield much higher success rates in finding new markets for dormant assets.  A Technology-Market Fit analysis starts with assessment of the claims and potential capabilities of the existing technology.  Then, analysts will assess similar or analogous technologies being developed in other companies and markets to see if there is an opportunity for fit, or even differentiation.  This is then followed by the markets in which these emerging developments are occurring to determine the most lucrative paths to pursue. 

From this point of new understanding there are several ways forward towards asset monetization.  For example, a company may decide to license, or even sell off the asset to a non-competitor or spin out a new startup to further develop the asset, thus increasing its potential value.  Alternatively, the company may decide to form a partnership or joint venture that would enable a more expedient time-to-market.  If the newly conceptualized asset use is close to the asset owner’s core, they may decide to take it on themselves, setting up a new revenue stream (think 3M PostIt Notes).  The choices vary, but as you can see, the once dormant asset is now in play with the potential for top- and bottom-line impact.

Leverage Ezassi’s Technology-Market Fit Analysis to Resurrect Dormant Intellectual Property

Regardless of how a company’s IP assets are reintroduced, it is important to develop new strategies and processes for evaluating rejected and dormant assets, with pre-defined pathways for moving these assets through to monetization or commercialization. 

Revitalize your innovation pipeline and unlock new revenue streams by tapping into the potential of your existing IP portfolio. Click here to find more information about Ezassi’s proven approach to finding Technology-Market Fit or contact us to talk to one of our Innovation Analysts.

Solve for technology-market fit with the assistance of an Ezassi Analyst, the missing piece of your Innovation team.