Intellectual property can create competitive advantages for the organisation and open up new ways to create wealth, Director of Intellectual Property Stephen Selby told attendees at an intellectual asset management seminar.

Opened today in Hong Kong, the two-day event aims at helping Hong Kong executives understand the concept of intellectual asset management and its applications.

Mr Selby said intellectual asset management is not just a concept for big corporations. In fact, it is a concept that all businesses can apply.

"Every organisation can collect creative ideas from its employees and customers," said Mr Selby.

"If we can codify this knowledge, we may discover some valuable intangible assets and know-how. Further down the road, this knowledge can be protected as intellectual property. Intellectual property can create competitive advantages for the organisation and open up new ways to create wealth." 

Intellectual asset management is the management of all the recorded knowledge assets - including intellectual property - in an organisation which have the potential to create value along the lines of helping to achieve the business, organisational or societal plan.

It is a holistic concept: The value-release activities flowing from an intellectual asset management approach are context specific and time bound.