This continues a series of guest columns from practitioners and bloggers I respect. The category - The Real Deal describes them well.
A couple of weeks ago, a Chess Dad who is also a tech investor walked up to me and asked "How's your friend in Singapore?". He couldn't remember the name and I thought he was talking about a family friend who recently moved back to the US. Finally, he said "your friend who blogs about technology".
I have only met Sadagopan once but we talk and email and read each others blogs often (he sets a very high standard for prolific blogging), so I am proud to call him a friend. He heads consulting for Satyam - one of India's largest service firms - in the Asia Pacific, Middle Eastern and African markets and is based in Singapore. I invited him to write about the thorny issues around IP particularly in an offshore setting. Here's his take:
"Generally speaking, around the world, Intellectual Property (IP) is not clearly defined and leaves room for varied interpretation. The US & Europe have differing standards for granting patents – so European competitors are sometimes seen to have registered patents for technology essentially invented and patented in the US. Many developing countries are effective in enforcing globally defined copyright laws but their treatment of patent laws is substantially different. Consequently, it is seen that there are rising concerns of patent abuse and at the other end of spectrum , it is seen that in some cases in the US context, the frenzy to patent is actually undermining real innovation – the one-click patent that Amazon.com held is an example.
Seen from the perspective of organizations planning to leverage offshore delivery models, IP protection is a major issue. Some independent research suggests that ten percent of firms may experience some form of IP theft during their engagement. But guess what – onshore employees are twice as likely to steal confidential materials as your offshore team. The research indicates this problem is most commonly caused by the disassociation the onshore team will feel due to the implementation of the offshore strategy. Nonetheless, offshore IP protection is also essential.
In general, offshore locations in developing nations may not have well defined civil court mechanisms for speedy dispute resolutions and the damage claims and recovery may not provide adequate cover. Here are some practices to insulate yourself:
A. Work on a rigorous due diligence exercise about the vendor history and its track record in terms of IP enforcements/violations
B. Explore opportunities to sign the contract with European or American entities of offshoring firms, should such an option exist.
C. Begin with pilots – spend adequate time to institutionalize streamlined processes between locations and build mutual trust with the partners.
D. Consider employee screening with comprehensive background checks (Possible in well developed offshore markets like India)
E. Continually broadcast about the sanctity of IP protection to offshore teams as much as the principal would at onsite premises. Have independent top security/IP experts beam messages to the offshore team regularly on this topic.
F. Define rigorous offshore security mechanisms to include separated rooms, well isolated networks and copy free environment.
G. Keep a tight control on integration of modules (say at onsite location) or by keeping the timing a closely guarded secret. A network of trusted partners in various locations working together in a centrally coordinated manner may also help.
H. Maintain a central repository for all documentations, technical builds, with well defined versioning frameworks. Conduct rigorous quarterly audits on its structure and usage.
I. Conduct IP audits to look for copyrightable resources, purging unauthorized software, ensure ownership relationships are well defined and kept up to date.
J. Make sure that in all meetings, appropriate credits/references are attributed to the creator/owner of the work and make this a movement within in all occasions."
Read his prolific blog at http://123suds.blogspot.com/
