As a CEO, you determine whether your inventions should be legally secured against the competition in the sense of a cost-minimizing defensive property rights strategy or whether an offensive property rights portfolio strategy should also be pursued. You can build a patent portfolio that incorporates your future developments and, beyond that, include adjacent technology markets. Certain property rights can be licensed on this basis and you can actively commercialize your intellectual property. You may have a pledge of security in case you yourself are attacked by a competitor and you in turn cross-license patents not directly needed (cross-licensing).

Do not simply think of “due diligence” as a costly legal formal exercise, but take the opportunity to check whether your patents still cover your products, or whether they have developed away from each other (which is not uncommon!).

Using a rewards system for your developers, make an improvement around your successful product before the end of your patent to assert your monopoly position in the marketplace.