Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property (IP) is crucial for businesses in the digital economy
In today’s highly competitive economic environment, effective management of intellectual property rights can be complex and challenging, due to the lack of harmonisation of national regulations, the variety of protection systems, the technical character of registration procedures, and the varying maintenance formalities and national use requirements. New challenges, triggered by the digital economy and globalisation, include additional tax compliance obligations and increasing threats of infringement and unfair competition.
PwC has a team of intellectual property experts providing a comprehensive and holistic range of services to support you in the management of your intellectual property. We work closely with PwC’s tax and advisory specialists to identify, value, structure, protect, manage, and optimise your intellectual property from a legal and tax perspective.
We support you throughout the IP lifecycle, from developing and implementing IP strategy, to IP portfolio management, monitoring and defending infringements, value chain reorganisation and commercialisation of IP through licensing, distribution and other commercial arrangements.
Click to enlarge
What we do for clients
Audit of IP portfolios
- IP inventory and rights classification
- Trademark and domain name valuation
- Identifying weaknesses in, and proposing actions to remediate, existing IP protection
- Designating a trademark protection system and establishing IP strategies
Trade mark portfolio management
- Cross-border trade mark and domain name registrations and renewals
- Worldwide trade mark watching service
- Short and long term enforcement strategies
- Conducting negotiations aimed at reinforcing IP rights on the basis of co-existence and prior-rights agreements
- Cease and desist actions
- Filing oppositions and cancellation actions
Commercialising IP rights
- Advising on, drafting and negotiating IP-related aspects of commercial agreements
- IP assignment and licensing
IP re-structuring and tax optimisation
- Identification and management of tax issues
- Aligning IP ownership with group tax strategy
Legal advice related to IP
- Helping you to identify risks such as litigation, revenue leakage and commercial exposure/ reputational damage
- Legal advice on issues including joint development, ownership, exploitation, and licensing of IP
- IP due diligence and verification to support M&A and other commercial activities
"‘Today, intellectual property (IP) is a significant business asset for any enterprise. Like any other property, IP has to be strategically protected and exploited to generate returns and profitable investments’ "
