Guest Book Review: Intellectual Property Risk Management

This review of Intellectual Property Risk Management by Donal O’Connell is kindly provided by Professor Ruth Soetendorp. Ruth is an IP Educator. She is Professor Emerita and Associate Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University. She currently teaches intellectual property management at Bayes Business School, City University of London, and is the first Visiting IP Professor at University of the Arts London. Here is what she says:

 

Intellectual Property Risk Management, Donal O’Connell’s third book, takes all the wisdom Donal has accrued from his experience managing intellectual property risk in-house and as a consultant.  He has produced a text which is accessible, engaging, and informative.  Reading through his painstakingly ordered text, his voice rings out clearly, as though he were sharing his knowledge in direct conversation.

Donal writes about IP Risk, which is an area of IP management underrepresented in UK literature.  He has focused on it from the perspective of the threat it poses, and the most damage it can wreak on the unaware and those ignorant of its lethal potential.  This is not an academic text.  In fact, if it progresses to a second edition, it will benefit not least from an index and from inclusion of authoritative reference material to assist the reader seeking to broaden their knowledge and understanding.

In lieu of an index, the reader is presented with a list of almost 300 sections, each a page or two long, organised into a table of contents of 35 parts.  The likelihood of finding that Donal has addressed what concerns you, on the topic of IP risk management, is high.  However, the likelihood of finding it covered in sufficient depth not to do any further research, will depend on your starting point.  Ideas are presented with originality, including, for example, an IP Risk Register, which is presented as a grid that should include 13 elements (pp 50-51) and a grid of key questions to ask of a supplier (p 107).

I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing this book as an IP educator who teaches postgraduate and undergraduate students about IP Management.  Donal O’Connell is a highly valued guest lecturer who visits towards the end of term to share his eminently practical understanding of IP management with students, after they have spent 10 weeks studying IP legislation and IP management theory.  The students appreciate how his perspectives put the academic material they have been studying into a ‘real life’ business context.  As their positive feedback reflects.  

Those responsible for managing an enterprise or business where management of IP and its risks are relevant should find that this book once read will be kept close to hand.  Intellectual property law professionals may also find Donal’s presentation of the implications of IP legal and regulatory constraints relevant to clients.  Not least, Intellectual Property Risk Management has a useful place to occupy on the university library shelf.  It will support student entrepreneurs; student start up managers as well as IP law and management students as they put their academic study into business practice. 

Details: 

Independently published Dec 2021

Paperback ‏ 150 pages

ISBN 9798787041651

ISBN-13 ‏979-8787030181

Dimensions ‎21.59 x 0.91 x 27.94 cm