I have recently been searching for diamonds, for an engagement ring for my son, who today proposed to his beautiful bride to be. Coming from South Africa, the land of diamonds, I decided to refresh my mind and read up about mining and gems. It is fascinating that, besides the obvious glow and glory that is associated with gem discovery, diamonds have enjoyed millennia of fantastic branding success that has convinced most humans that a diamond is a necessity for a marriage! Try do that for your brand!

There is a clear historical challenge from Gem mining – entrepreneurs searching for diamonds using laborers, yet also executing undignified searches of the gem seekers, to make sure the gems were not hidden from the employers. Like most industries, there is the above-board side that plays by the rules, and the under-side that does not, so it depends where your business operates.   

In the under-side of the diamond industry are Blood diamonds or Conflict diamonds, referring to diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance insurgencies and wars. These trades typically force and abuse the laborers to do the hard work they do, which is why they have been boycotted by almost all enlightened countries, as the laborers’ rights are not part of the equation, there is no agreement between miner and owner.

In contrast, in our enlightened corporations, workers are employed, have contracts, and in general agree to assign certain rights to their employers, including their IP rights, in return for payment and work conditions. Our corporations need great people to innovate and develop IP with corporate value, and these corporations need to be able to leverage this value. But what about the rights and the value of these people?

Tech companies need the best people to develop the best technologies, yet live with a constant paranoia that precisely these same best people can use various means to prevent value sharing and can even be the primary instruments of technology export to competitors and the like. We see time and time again this self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to key people leaving key positions, and taking their knowledge, experience and inside information elsewhere. This needs to be prevented!

Setup a system to enable developing the best technology, with protocols to drive tech discovery sharing:

A clear work contract with IP related expectations and supporting protocols must be made clear from the start, in the agreement with employees. Expectations for record keeping, data storage and idea sharing should be mandated from the start. When the CEO knows with confidence that the IP gems that are being developed are being properly handled, there is less reason to suspect otherwise, and rather, win-win spirited support for great innovators should be engendered.

Run a Gem mining operation to reveal the existing and newly discovered gems, and Develop a program to harvest the feasible and profitable gems:

Searching for Gems can be all pervasive and resource draining, but it is never enough. Whether it is new shining discoveries or smart leveraging of consistent improvements, the gems must be appropriately filtered, polished and valued, to provide a hope for successful harvesting. Corporations need specialist eyes on the R&D process as well as the IP gems, to measure success, consider future potential, and make decisions on what and how to develop the right gems. Without this critical operation, the entire feasibility of the project, and your corporation, will be in great doubt.

Do the above steps with respect, appreciation and dignity:

Remember the blood diamonds? Well if we are to develop IP cultures that are gaining the most from great people, and building sustainable value, the stakeholders in the system must be allowed to do the IP mining with the utmost respect for their people. Patent gems, unlike diamonds, have the name of the inventors inscribed in them, so there is naturally more recognition built in. Further than this, we are to consider incentive programs that both encourage and provide recognition for excellence in innovation. And of course, innovation leaders should be supported in their drive to innovate, given space to experiment boldly, and be given the opportunities to develop and grow within our corporations, so they don’t choose to do so outside.

New Technologies:

Like diamonds, we know that ownership of IP is filled with massive importance and contains huge risk if not properly managed. Interestingly, in the old industry of diamonds, technical services have recently emerged that enable tracking diamond movement between buyers and across borders. One such service was launched in July 2016 that allows managers to build systems using a blockchain for tracking high-value or highly regulated items through a supply chain. Further, Everledger uses such a system to “record the movement of diamonds from mines to jewelry stores”. So if we can already use blockchain for stones, we can only guess at the tools and expertise that we will soon need to master the tracking of our IP in the future.

Finally, we experience every day the battles between original and copycat technologies and products. In the gem space, synthetic diamonds, manufactured in a laboratory, fight for their place against natural gems. These synthetic stones have been manufactured using various processes for over 50 years, and are currently used massively in industry. However, it has recently become possible to produce gem-quality synthetic diamonds that are identical to natural stones on a molecular level. These new versions can be so visually similar to natural gems that only a gemologist with special equipment can tell the difference.

This twist challenges us to discover the real IP once again. Is the discovered diamond the true gem, or the brilliant copy created with novel technology? It seems to me that these external challenges have the ability to shatter the current status quo, and serious players cannot leave a stone unturned in making sure that the real gems are appropriately mined and harvested in their corporations.

To the Future!

Yaron Damelin – Strategic IP Management Consultant