Increasingly, intellectual property (IP) is gaining importance to enterprises. Companies dedicate substantial time and resources to gain IP protection through trade marks, registered designs, copyrights or patents. The challenge for most enterprises is optimising their IP's value, which requires effective IP management.

Effective IP management increases the usefulness of IP in sustaining competitive advantage and generating revenue. It enhances a company's ability to commercialise its inventions, market its brands, license its know-how, engage in joint-ventures and contractual agreements involving IP, and effectively monitor and enforce its IP rights.

Trek 2000 international is one company which views its IP portfolio as valuable. Their commercialisation strategy has brought extremely profitable opportunities.

'Trekking' Onwards with IP
Established in 1989, Trek has built itself into an industry leader and innovator in knowledge-based areas such as portable storage devices, digital technology, wireless encryption and sophisticated enterprise solutions.

Trek's registered trade marks for Trek and ThumbDrive are important assets for the company. They are registered in Singapore, China and India, and awaiting successful registration in other countries.

Trek's Patent Strategy
Trek has conscientiously built up its portfolio of patents. Since receiving its first patent in 2002, the company has been granted over 150 patents in Wireless, USB, Anti-Piracy, Security and Centralised Management System technology solutions. As a commercial company, Treks pragmatic IP strategy ensures that its patents yield additional revenue.

"One of our key patent strategies is to ensure that the patent is commercially viable. This is done before we even embark on filing the patent. Concepts are first developed by our R&D team and then discussed with the sales and marketing team." said Mr Gurcharan Singh, Chief Financial Officer of Trek.

Another strategy looks at technologies that can become revenue-generating products. Conscious of the bottom line, the company typically takes two years to develop a concept into a marketable product. The longer term strategy is to build a library of IPs in key technologies to enhance the company's value.

As patents have a limited lifespan, Trek has sought to extend its advantage by building newer solutions. For instance, besides the ThumbDrive USB Flash Drive basic storage solution, new technologies in related areas such as Biometric identification, Anti-Virus, Compression and Anti-Piracy solutions were developed. Trek has then patented them, strengthening its ownership of the ThumbDrive USB Flash Drive solution.

Expanding Trek's Licensing Portfolio Trek's IP strategy has boosted sales to S$177 million in 2006. The company will continue to build up its IP assets for further growth. Technology licensing, started in 2003, is one area poised to boost business.

Through registration of its patents in key markets and countries, Trek has a steady revenue stream from the licensing of patents. These rights are not only commercially valuable but also enhance Treks brand name and create future market opportunities.

Protecting the Company's IP
Trek's IP savviness comes from experience, having been embroiled in a lengthy and expensive IP litigation case in 2002. The company had to defend its ownership of the ThumbDrive USB Flash Drive solution in Singapore by commencing patent infringement actions against some companies. Three years later, the High Court of Singapore ruled in Trek's favour.

"We first showcased our ThumbDrive USB Flash Drive solution at the Cebit computer trade show in 2000. It was the first and smallest USB flash drive the world had ever seen," recalled Mr Singh. "We had only just filed our patent that year. When we went back to Cebit the following year, we had some 50 competitors from Korea, China, Taiwan and more. Unfortunately, we could not do anything as our patent was still pending."

So when the company received its Singapore patent, it moved to protect its assets. Looking back, Mr Singh said, "IP litigation is very expensive. This case cost Trek close to S$5 million and took up a huge amount of time and resources. On hindsight, we would have looked for an alternative solution, such as an out of court settlement, or arranging a licensing deal."

Mr Singh agreed, however, that the case proved the strength of the company's IP and its products. Trek's experience has also shown that Singapore has a conducive environment for creating, exploiting and protecting IP and the value of owning IP rights.

Trek's experience in this IP litigation case, which saw a small local company taking on bigger international players, demonstrated not only Singapores conducive environment for creating, exploiting and protecting IP but more importantly the value of owning IP rights. Moving ahead, Trek intends to continue expanding its IP portfolio in order to fuel further growth. ET