Intellectual property (IP) is the term used to refer to intangible but no less real assets, often touched on by consultants in their work with public services. In many ways, business and manufacturing organisations have moved away from emphasising the value of traditional, tangible inventions and product developments, towards viewing IP as the major criterion by which to assess the value of commerce. The development of new products and services increasingly depends not on the ownership of a particular machine or mechanical process, but on who owns the IP associated with it. Both consultants and the clients with whom they work need to be sensitive to the importance of IP, as well as more conventional technological innovations, as resources in the struggle to compete with rival producers of goods and services and to maintain effectiveness.

The rights to IP are created and sustained by the legislation governing copyrights, patents, trademarks and designs. Other intangible assets covered by the notion of IP include the bread and butter of the office such as address lists of clients or customers, networks of contacts and professional, financial, marketing and commercial intelligence.

IP may be protected in contracts, franchises and other written agreements between the parties to a commercial, creative or other activity with an equivalent investment by people of resources such as time, money and expertise. Agreements such as these may enable consultants and clients to collaborate in ventures involving each other and other organisations, where the rights of the owner of the IP are specified, but where certain of these rights may be assigned to another individual, group or organisation for a particular purpose or a specified time, in return for financial payment or other compensation, or a guarantee of a stake in future benefits, such as royalties.

An example of legislation is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which covers the rights of authors not to have their work reproduced by any means, except with their permission. There is also a Geneva Convention covering the rights of academic authors to quote extracts of other academic authors’ work, within prescribed word limits.

Ideas can, and often do, generate money for employees and also their employers.