How GODREJ & BOYCE MFG. CO. LTD. restructured their Corporate IP Department into a digital workplace with the help of Iolite Intellectual Property Management Software
GODREJ & BOYCE MFG. CO. LTD. was established in the year 1897, the company has regularly and gradually built its intellectual assets portfolio for its manufacturing of high-quality locks, then extending to other durables (refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, home security systems, and safes, furniture), products for institutions (office furniture, audio-visual solutions, access control systems, perimeter security solutions, bank security solutions, beverage vending machines, interior solutions, hospital and laboratory furniture) and industrial products (process equipment, materials handling equipment, industrial storage solutions, tooling, precision equipment)
Godrej and Boyce, a Godrej Group Company, has a presence across 14 diverse business units. Currently, the company possesses a large volume of intellectual assets comprising Trademarks, Patents, Copyrights, Designs, and IP Litigation Applications.
Challenge
Previously, the legal department used to process, govern, and maintain their IPR Portfolio for their various BUs in a hybrid method.
The request was initiated by the Division by email and then based on this trigger the Legal Department starts the work.
There were defined processes for each of the IPR types and these were followed and backed up with emails, documents, drawings, write-ups and followed till the certificate is granted and received from the Registry.
Post receipt of the certificates, the data was uploaded into the traditional portal developed by the in-house IT team. The portal later sent the triggers for renewals etc., which were again followed by emails and allied documentation.
As a spinoff of all the engagement with the attorneys for the services provided, all the invoices were processed in parallel in the manual system and final payments were made from the treasury to attorney firms which were captured on a monthly and batch basis.
Objective /Purpose :
The setup was a mixed system which was very time-consuming. Conventional spreadsheets and combination with emails as review sheets were being used as tools to track, store, retrieve the data, from time to time and on the need basis, till receipt of certificate. Post that the internal portal was a repository to take the next steps to save and accept all related activities where the trigger date is again handled through emails, from time to time.
Hence the IP team was in the hunt for a single platform to manage their end-to-end IPR processes and integrate internal users with legal, whilst maintaining agreed levels of limited access to the external attorney firms.
The IP team analyzed and evaluated many IP Management Software, local and international for their department and shortlisted Iolite IP Management Software as the most advanced, feature-rich, and cost-effective solution to collaborate and synchronize their business process.
Iolite IP Management Software helped in streamlining the business process right from idea generation to filing of the Intellectual Assets. Godrej required implementation of approval mechanism at various stages of IP life cycle with a centralized repository for storage of deadline, details, and document for fast and efficient retrieval of all IP assets of the company. A robust and scalable software was required which caters to all the above requirements of the IP department and Business Units with informative and graphical MIS reports for various levels of management.
Solution :By implementing the Iolite IP Management Software, the workflow process of the BU teams, as well as the IP teams, has been streamlined and enhanced.
Iolite offered a powerful integrative administrative software solution that visibly reduced the overall management cost of the IP Department and at the same time increased productivity of the manpower upon its implementation and stabilization. A great amount of time is saved as the information is processed very fast and a high level of data is retrieved in a couple of minutes with the help of the latest technology.
Iolite IP Management Software helped in managing all pre-filing workflow processes and documents right from the generation of ideas from Inventors and Business Units to the filing of IP. Appropriate Reminders/Alerts to all the relevant user groups assist in timely compliances to all upcoming schedules.
Software with its transparent, user-friendly, and intuitive interface, helped in managing all the details and deadlines pertaining to the IP life cycle of various IP Assets owned/licensed to Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. or any of its subsidiaries irrespective of its location/ownership in any part of the world.
In the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when all the team members were compelled to work from home from remote locations, Iolite IP Management Software proved to be a blessing in disguise as all the required data and documents were easily accessible in an organized manner at a single fail-safe location. It enabled all staff members to work collaboratively and seamlessly on various projects from different locations since the software offered all the data and documents stored systematically and accurately at a centralized single platform.
