Starting an IP inventory you will actually use

A small ceramics business has a name on its packaging, photographs on its website, drawings for a new collection, and a glaze process known to two people. When a retailer asks about an exclusive range, all four matter at once. The owner does not need a database. She needs to see what exists, who is involved, and where the proof is.

Begin with one part of the work

Pick one product, collection, service or project that matters now, ideally the one a customer, investor or partner is asking about. That gives the inventory an edge. Leave old sketches and discarded names out; trying to list everything is the fastest way never to finish.

List what you made and what you rely on. WIPO's IP-audit guidance covers registered rights (trademarks, patents, designs, domain names, copyright registrations), unregistered assets (software, trade secrets, unregistered copyright), contracts with IP terms (licenses, supplier, customer, employment and non-disclosure agreements), other people's IP you use, and rights other people hold in yours, such as a co-owner, a licensee or a lender.1 For a website, that means your writing, the commissioned photographs, a licensed font, the agreement with the developer, and the brand on every page.

If you cannot see where to start, take WIPO's free IP Diagnostic self-assessment first. It asks ten questions about your business, opens the follow-up sections that apply to you, and gives you a downloadable report of the IP issues likely to matter.2

Give each entry a short useful description

Start a spreadsheet with six columns:

1. Item.
2. Purpose: where and how you use it.
3. People or organizations involved: creator, co-owner, licensor, licensee, anyone else with a claim.
4. What you believe you own or may use.
5. Where the documents are.
6. Open question or next review date.

For anything registered, add the registration number, the country and the renewal date; checking that each registration is still valid and when it must be renewed is part of WIPO's audit.1 Write every entry so that someone who did not build the sheet can understand it.

An entry might read: "Spring collection photographs — online shop and retailer catalogue — photographed by Noor — use covered by signed agreement; check packaging — agreement and image folder linked — confirm packaging use before print order." That tells you far more than "Photos: owned", and it does not pretend a short label has settled the law.

Keep the work and the permission to use it apart. A licensed font belongs in your inventory because you rely on its license, but the entry should say you are licensed to use it, not that you own it. When you are not sure, write "to confirm" and the reason.

Link to evidence without copying everything

Link to the signed agreements, source files, official records and key correspondence; do not paste their contents into the sheet. Use WIPO's audit preparation list as your checklist of what to link: your IP policies, standard agreements with IP clauses, the people who create or manage IP and their agreements, a register of what you own with supporting documents, contracts with third parties, and any IP disputes.1

Keep secrets out of the sheet. A trade secret stays protected only while it is known to a limited group and you take reasonable steps to keep it secret, such as non-disclosure agreements with staff and partners and controlling who can open the important documents.3 Write "Glaze process — confidential — restricted folder", not the recipe, and keep that folder closed to everyone who does not need it. Keeping valuable know-how a secret covers the rest.

Then test the links. Open a few from another authorized person's account. A document that only one former colleague can open is not a business record. Decide where the main copy of each document lives and name the person who keeps the index up to date.

Let the inventory earn its place

Back to the retailer. The ceramics business can now name the collection, find the photography agreement, and see that the glaze process stays out of the presentation. The inventory answered a practical question without a long report.

Add items as they become relevant, and drop any column nobody fills in. Bring the inventory up to date before the moments WIPO names for an audit: setting or changing your business strategy, talking to investors or lenders, entering an acquisition or partnership, cutting costs such as renewal fees you no longer need, and licensing your work or facing a dispute.1 The test is simple: when a decision arrives, can you find and understand what you need?