INTA Research
IP in Times of Recession: A Comprehensive Guide for IP Professionals
Published: March 4, 2024
Recessions have far-reaching effects on all sectors of the economy, including the legal sector. While the impact of recessions has been studied closely and is generally well documented—including their impact on the legal industry—there were none that focused on the intellectual (IP) industry, leaving IP practitioners without the resources to help them navigate the impact of recession on their trademarks and complementary IP.
As the world emerged from the 2020 recession (which was primarily driven by the COVID-19 pandemic), INTA convened a Recession and IP Project Team to examine the recession and provide IP practitioners with the tools they need to manage their IP rights, particularly trademarks, during times of economic uncertainty.
The Project Team was tasked with creating an efficient method of administering and managing trademark/IP portfolios during an economic crisis. Their final report, IP in Times of Recession: A Comprehensive Guide for IP Professionals, lays out ways IP stakeholders can prepare for and respond to a recession. It focuses on four areas:
- Identifying a recession;
- Understanding its potential financial impact;
- Understanding/preparing for its potential impact for trademark practitioners; and
- How stakeholders use technology in times of recession.
Keeping in mind the extent to which different regions and industries may respond differently, the Report offers guidance for developing IP strategies that reflect varied approaches to navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by recessions in varied circumstances.
The Report also explores the range of ways that law firms can support their clients affected by a recession, including generating revenue with creative methods for resolving ongoing debt issues; identifying the core rights and abandoning the remaining in order to reduce annuity costs; and reviewing IP rights to determine whether all their rights are registered, if they need to remain so, and, even, whether new rights can be filed in light of grace periods.
The key role technology plays in helping the IP community weather uncertain economic times is strongly underlined. Trademark practitioners who adopted certain technology were less negatively impacted by this most recent recession. In studying the impact and role of technology in dealing with a recession, the Project Team assessed both how technology can be used to deal with a recession and how the impact of recessions on technology-based IP differs from that on non-technology-based IP.
