The Management of Intellectual Assets: Delivering Value to the Business

Abstract

At The Dow Chemical Company, Intellectual Assets are regarded as knowledge with a value and are a key factor in creating wealth for the company. These Intellectual Assets include patents, trade secrets, trademarks and know‐how. The company has devised a six‐step Intellectual Asset model which involves strategy setting; identification and classification of existing Intellectual Assets; valuing these assets; deciding whether to invest in new knowledge through the development or purchase of technology and skills; and assembling the Intellectual Assets into Knowledge Portfolios for each global Dow business. This process is repeated on a regular basis. This paper discusses how the methodology has been developed and implemented at Dow, including the company’s approach to creating a Global Intellectual Asset Technology Centre and multi‐functional and multi‐geographic Intellectual Asset teams. Tools and techniques developed for measuring the company’s Intellectual Assets are generic and may be appropriately applied to any organization.