One of the most satisfying work we’ve undertaken to date is protecting the entire intellectual property assets of a large PNG company. The iPi Group with its headquarters in Lae came to us to find out how best to protect their IP.
It was a challenging task for two main reasons.
The first is that iPi is by no means a small entity. The Lae based company is as they put it “a major commercially diversified enterprise operating in a wide range of industries from trucking and logistics, extreme large volume dry freight and fuel road transport, retail and wholesale, hoteliers, plantations, bulk warehousing, import/export and customs agency, and with operating businesses and investments both in PNG and abroad”. That description in itself is a mouthful and you imagine the mammoth task we had go through to collate all their assets and provide an effective strategy from the start of the project through prosecution and finally registration.
The second reason was the diversification but more importantly to approach the task from a more practical and commercial perspective. One of my main goals in understanding a client and its intellectual property is to have a reasonable level of understanding of how the intellectual property assets are actually used in a practical sense in the business. After all, it is the practical aspect of a business that puts the business at risk of potential infringement and to work out how to minimize that risk as much as possible.
The work was educational too because it took our team to learn a little more in industries we do not typically deal with like trucking and haulage.
It was also enjoyable and satisfying to help a company that has employed and continues to employ many Papua New Guineans in a wide range of industries.
And the fact that they are innovation driven, it bodes well with our business as we too are innovation driven and always eager to learn how we can continue to improve what we do best – which is helping clients to protect their IP in the most cost-effective way.
Thank you to iPi for having the faith and trust in engaging a small locally based firm to consult and advise on the protection of their most important intangible assets.
Email us on [email protected] if you have any queries.
PIC Credit: iPi Group PNG
