Topic and Requirement: Answer following questions
You are an innovative service provider. You have devised a novel laundry service which not only picks up laundry from offices but also delivers it to customers at the offices. (This is a real life case adapted from a seminar given by the EPO via their ip4inno project.) You own a simple laundry service located in a busy commercial area of the city. You have four employees. Your business is flourishing as you begin to have a big and regular customer base. You keep your customers details on a database. After a year or so you realize that you could offer a more extended service and potentially profitable service but you are not sure what this new extended service may be. You are also convinced that you could increase your client base although this is more of a feeling than one based on evidence or market research. You have not done any market research as you cannot afford to conduct a market survey.
So you are faced with two important considerations: (1) how would you get ideas on what this extended service should offer? (2) How would you protect the idea in this new service once you start offering it?
You also have the ambition to open up more laundry service locations offering the same service within the next twelve months because you are convinced that this type of laundry service will be attractive to busy professionals and working families.
So what will your (i) IP acquisition and (ii) IP management strategy be for:
1. For your business which will now include the new service?
2. What are the measures you will need to consider to protect your IP in the new locations, without losing control of your IP?