Summit TV speaks to Kobus Fick from engineering consultancy Fourier Approach about some of the lessons they’ve learnt about developing and protecting non-tangible intellectual property.

Transcript

Summit TV speaks to Kobus Fick from engineering consultancy Fourier Approach about some of the lessons they’ve learnt about developing and protecting non-tangible intellectual property.

Stephan Lamprecht: Welcome to the Intellectual Property Show on Summit TV. Up to now we’ve focused on intellectual property (IP) pertaining to tangible goods and services, but what about know-how and experience in consulting services? Kobus Fick is chief executive of Fourier Approach an industrial engineering consultancy. Kobus, what does Fourier do?

Kobus Fick: Fourier specialises in industrial engineering. Because of the close link between the solutions and information technology fields a lot of the solutions in the end materialize through that - so we’ve focused on industrial engineering and the information management sciences.

Stephan Lamprecht: When you say solutions what kind of solutions are we talking about?

Kobus Fick: Solutions are packaged in terms of information systems, and also in terms of processes that can be packaged. That’s more difficult but can be packaged as a solution as well.

Stephan Lamprecht: Give us an example of a typical application that you’ve developed?

Kobus Fick: We have developed various applications in various fields - a typical example that’s new is an operational system for a trade union for example, where the trade union can actually automate their whole business process through the use of information technology. It’s a good mix between process optimisation and improvement as well as the information management side.

Stephan Lamprecht: I would imagine that if you think about the work you do that a lot of it relates to intellectual property that belongs to your clients - for example their business processes, trade secrets and so on - how do you deal with that kind of confidential information, and how do you manage that?

Kobus Fick: It’s a big problem in terms of the ownership thereof - because it’s not that tangible. What’s also true is that it’s always negotiable. A standard clause in contracts to do consultancy - especially for bigger firms - is that all IP will belong to the client. It’s also true that IP that originally belonged to you can be kept - you must just make sure that the contract stipulates that - and if you feel that the solution is also part of your IP then you should negotiate that.

Stephan Lamprecht: Obviously if you start out with fundamental principle of intellectual property that it belongs to the person that creates it - the inventor if you want - when you start off consulting for somebody then you start off in a situation where the IP belongs to you. What you are suggesting then is that the standard clause would be that you assign that IP to the client - and that they become entitled to all those rights...

Kobus Fick: Yes. You must just make sure that it’s right. The standard clause is that the guy who has gold is in charge of that rule - he will take it over if you don’t make sure that you keep your IP intact.

Stephan Lamprecht: We are talking about intellectual property - how do you develop intellectual property within Fourier?

Kobus Fick: Fourier is a people’s company - so our knowledge is within our people. That is our biggest asset. The challenge is how do you institutionalise that knowledge? That’s not strange - it’s typical of the knowledge economy - so we try to make sure that the ways in which we do the work gets packaged in methodologies. We are strongly driven through methodology so everything that we do gets done through methodologies - those are formalised and that’s our IP. In terms of the specific things that we do we create a knowledge base where the information and knowledge associated with that gets stored within an enterprise architecture framework - and within the documents that you create through that so it’s available for other people to share inside the company.

Stephan Lamprecht: So you don’t get into a situation when a key employee of yours leaves then they take all your IP away…

Kobus Fick: Yes. We also contract with our employees so the knowledge that’s created in Fourier stays there.

Stephan Lamprecht: I would imagine that if we’re talking here about intellectual property one side would pertain to knowledge of the client environment - and you mentioned the methodologies and so forth - but also a lot of it would have to do with for example the client lists, key clients, who do you speak to within that client - how do you deal with that?

Kobus Fick: I differentiate and call that confidentiality - so there is a difference for me in terms of confidentiality, and knowledge or intellectual property from a methodology perspective. So we try to deal with that from a confidentiality perspective to make sure employees don’t tell people things they shouldn’t know about the Fourier business. That is confidentiality. Again it’s a grey area because what’s public knowledge and what isn’t? But we try from a contractual perspective to address that.

Stephan Lamprecht: You’ve been around now for a decade or so…

Kobus Fick: For 10 years…

Stephan Lamprecht: You’ve found this to be a reasonable approach?

Kobus Fick: Yes, I think it’s a consistent thing as well - if you continuously contract for confidentiality and intellectual property your clients start to understand that, and employees know they shouldn’t do certain things - and you should also enforce that at some stages. If you don’t they’re going to see that it’s not being enforced and then they can actually violate that.

Stephan Lamprecht: So for a prospective client I would imagine the first thing they would like to know that the intellectual property resides in your people, the know-how and methodologies. What has been your experience in terms of developing the brand Fourier and what Fourier stands for - what is that promise that you make to clients that they know they can expect a certain level of quality?

Kobus Fick: It’s systematic and over a time period good delivery. I think the best way of convincing a customer of that is to show them the history - show them that in 10 years of service delivery we have achieved certain results consistently. That is the best value of our brand. Obviously the marketing material and development of the tangibles of the brand is important - and we have gone there substantially. I think our brand is visible to our customers and we are proud of that brand. But we have to keep it there and protect it not only in terms of the higher level branding issues but also with the small issues so we do focus on that, yes.

Stephan Lamprecht: In that ten years have you had some specific experience with regards to intellectual property - a learning experience that stands out that you want to reflect on?

Kobus Fick: A lesson learnt on the confidentiality side is where in the beginning we didn’t contract for that with our employees for example. We definitely can count some losses because of that. Subsequently we fixed that. More on the IP side I think money buys IP - so at some stages larger contracts we’ve given away IP where in retrospect I would have liked it to be different. But if you have to weigh up contract value versus keeping IP then it’s a choice or decision that you have to make there and then. That’s not always easy - but I think one should try always to keep the IP. Sometimes for the client it’s not always a big thing - with a bit of negotiation you can actually negotiate for that. If you don’t you loose it so that’s a lesson learnt from our side.

Stephan Lamprecht: It’s important not to only think of IP in the line of patents and trademarks - for most businesses IP resides in its people and they are therefore the most valuable asset.