Nokia: Ignore IP rights at your peril

Independent developers’ reliance on work-for-hire projects needs to be reconsidered, says a senior exec at Nokia, as self-owned IP becomes increasingly important to survival in a turbulent economy.

Louise Pentland, the senior vice president and chief legal officer of Nokia, says it is “simply not an option” to ignore the relevance of IP.

“Companies can flourish and differentiate based on their management of IP,” she said, ahead of her speech at this week’s Digital Spark event in Dundee.

“IP management often gets overlooked or de-prioritised because it can involve upfront and ongoing costs, but it can be short-sighted not to pay attention to this,” added Pentland.

“IP management is a basic element of risk mitigation today – it is no longer just a nice thing to have. Companies do a lot to protect their pricing and their other confidential information. In today’s business times, IP is no different.

“For most companies, having an IP portfolio and an active strategy to protect core product ideas and technology is critical.”

Pentland will explain more in her keynote this week, entitled ‘IP in the Transition from the Analogue to the Digital Age’.