Towards Searching The Relevance of Intellectual Property Audit in India: An Appraisal

Abstract

In India, intellectual property has become the most effective and dynamic tool for Indian corporate houses in today's complex and competitive business environment. The company has a crucial interest in ensuring that appropriate steps are taken to create and maintain intellectual property assets. Therefore, in India, for creating a successful and valuable Intellectual Property Asset Management System, Intellectual Property Audits for auditing and reviewing the current and potential intellectual assets of the company is essential. Such audits would significantly designate and propose a systematic approach for the management, protection and exploitation of the intellectual assets. An IP audit can be a relatively straightforward exercise that can have a meaningful role in avoiding various circumstances like violation of other's right, protecting one's intellectual property right, clarifying IP ownership issues. It also serves as a guiding tool for maintenance, management and safeguarding of IP rights. As companies recognize the value of their intangibles and rights associated thereto, the importance of intellectual property in assessing the fair value of the companies' wealth is bound to grow. Against this backdrop, this article attempts to evaluate the relevance and applicability of intellectual property audit in India. An Intellectual Property Audit provides information on the nature and strength of the intangible assets by studying the Intellectual Property Right associated with those assets.

Key words: Audit, intellectual, property, India, trademark, patent, copyright.