Regardless of its area of activity, regardless of its size, regardless of its degree of marketing or technological innovation, an SME must always have an intellectual property strategy in place. This strategy must enable it to answer the following questions, for example:

• Could my business be disrupted by the intellectual property (trademarks, patents, designs, etc.) of one of my competitors? How can I reduce the risk of my company being sued for patent infringement?
• If my competitors take over my technological or design innovations, will that be detrimental to my company? Are these innovations being satisfactorily protected?
• Could any of my competitors, known or not yet identified, be tempted to use a trademark similar to one of my products or services in order to create a risk of confusion in the public mind and thus benefit from my company’s reputation?
• If my company is already a victim of infringement, is the current strategy really effective in combating infringement?
• Is my company’s intellectual property valued financially at its true value? Are there any simple actions I can take to improve the financial valuation of my company by leveraging intellectual property?
• Does my company comply with employee invention law? As the steps to be taken are not necessarily complicated or overly restrictive, should the current management policy for employee inventions be adapted?
• Would it be beneficial for my company to have more in-depth upstream knowledge of the technologies used by my competitors as well as new players in my market? Should I rely on competitive intelligence tools based on intellectual property to improve my knowledge of my market and my competitors?
• Would an audit of my intellectual property strategy help me to optimise my budget or the efficiency of my procedures?

HAUTIER IP’s teams work with many SMEs and many of them have been with us for over 20 years, trusting us to support their growth by assisting them with intellectual property.

Our approach to intellectual property is resolutely strategic and economic.

In collaboration with the SME management team, we identify the key aims that they hope to achieve through intellectual property. We set up monitoring indicators. We also organise training sessions for all employees to raise awareness of good practices in intellectual property.
Our team brings together lawyers and engineers with complementary profiles, which allows us to advise you on all aspects related to intellectual property: litigation, taxation, financial valuation, agreements with your partners, etc.
Defining and keeping to a carefully planned and efficient budget are part and parcel of our intellectual property strategies.

Our teams are here for you if you are looking to implement an optimal intellectual property procedure or assess the effectiveness of a procedure already in place.