without consideration. How can Company Assets be Used? Determining which assets are core and which non-core requires careful correlation with the business plan. Core rights should be given top priority with regard to budget and resource, in terms of their generation and maintenance as well as their defence and enforcement. Protection for your lead products should be offensive (ie protection for the product itself, formulation, its main use, and production); cover that the company is confident can be enforced and that will enable it to retain its market. Defensive protection is also important and should cover related compounds, alternative uses and processes for preparation. These rights serve two purposes -- they create a buffer zone around the product and potentially extend the patent life post expiry of the main product patent. Freedom to Commercialise Your freedom to commercialise is vital to success. Searches and reviews must be undertaken if the investment in developing a technology and its associated intellectual property is to be able to realise a return without a threat of infringement and possibility of an injunction preventing sales. If you intend to licence your technology, it is just as important to identify a clear path to market; a development partner is far less likely to entertain a late-stage deal at high value if it identifies potential third party threats that were not known to the company. These searches should identify any third party patents that might be infringed by the marketing of your product. The searches should cover