What HR needs to know about intellectual property

Why do HR professionals need to know about intellectual property (IP)?
Most businesses own some IP. In fact, it often forms a significant proportion of their value.

While some IP is protected by patents, registered designs or registered trade marks, a substantial part of a company's IP is simply carried around in employees’ heads and has no formal protection. Trade secrets, confidential technical know-how and customer information can all form part of a company’s IP portfolio. Even knowledge of how to operate a piece of machinery or use a system for logging customer data can count as IP.
 

Language does not simply reflect what is going on in organisational life: it also influences what people think and what they do

Linda Holbeche, director of the Holbeche Partnership and visiting professor of HRM/OD at Cass Business School