Part of managing IP, especially in large organisations, is the process of evaluating what to do with each innovation. A marketability/protectability matrix with several factors weighed helps to put all the options in perspective and support management decision-making (develop, form a joint venture, donate, or publish the IP).

If an innovation is marked ‘Trade Secret’, then it should be prominently marked to protect its status as a trade secret and no disclosures of its proprietary content should be made without a signed NDA. The patent process is lengthy and expensive by contrast.

A Marketing Manager can automate searches for inventors that may be interested in licensing a technology, and then inform the innovator of target licensees. To the extent that visibility access is authorised, contact can be initiated. When there is interest from potential licensees, a draft license showing the essential details such as the parties, license type, fixed fees and royalties and associated escalators as well as industrial and geographical inclusions and exclusions, can easily be created. In cases where innovations are combined, a license can also describe the manner of rights sharing.

Two or more innovations can be combined as: a new innovation that comprises the components and starts its own life cycle, or filed into a new portfolio that organises families of innovations together, or donated to a new virtual company. New innovations can be organised into portfolios, or for virtual companies to hold certain technology types.