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The Hidden Wealth Engine in Your Company 🤯

Most companies are sitting on a goldmine of intellectual property they don’t even know exists.

This “hidden IP” is often overlooked because it is not a patent, a trademark, or a copyright.

It is the proprietary, confidential information and “know-how” that makes your business run better than the competition.

We are talking about Trade Secrets, the single most powerful form of unprotected value you possess.

For the S&P 500, intangible assets like IP now account for an estimated 60% to 90% of their total market value.

Ignoring your trade secrets means leaving the majority of your company’s wealth undefended.

Trade secrets are not just secret recipes; they are the unique methods and data that give you an economic edge.

Think of Coca-Cola, which chose to protect its formula as a trade secret instead of getting a patent that would eventually expire.

That choice has kept its core product secured for over a century, demonstrating the tremendous value of this IP.

Every business, from a local service provider to a global manufacturer, has these hidden assets.

You need to shift your mindset from “What did we invent?” to “How do we uniquely do things?”

• The true treasure trove lies in your Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs.
• These are your manufacturing processes, your internal algorithms, and your supply chain logistics.
• The unpatented engineering information and internal methods of your R&D teams are also incredibly valuable.
• Even highly detailed customer lists, vendor agreements, and pricing strategies qualify as IP if they are kept secret.

The biggest mistake is failing to document and treat this information as secret in the first place.

You must be able to prove that you took “reasonable measures” to keep the information confidential.

The only way to uncover this massive hidden value is to conduct a comprehensive Intellectual Property Audit – across your business, covering all aspects – from the inception to now.

An IP audit is a comprehensive assessment designed to understand, value, and align all of your IP assets with your business goals.

It forces your teams to identify every piece of proprietary information that provides a competitive benefit.

An IP valuation specialist can then attribute a financial number to these otherwise invisible assets.

This allows you to optimize their value, reduce legal risks, and use them as collateral or leverage in financing.

• Start by interviewing key personnel across departments like R&D, Sales, Manufacturing, and IT.
• Ask them to detail the five processes or pieces of information that would do the most damage if a competitor knew them.
• Define exactly what constitutes a trade secret within your organization to avoid confusion.
• Implement clear security protocols, like restricting access and using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs).
• Make sure all employees sign agreements that clearly assign all intellectual property rights to the company.
• Your company’s long-term competitive advantage is already inside your four walls, waiting to be protected.

Stop viewing IP as only legal paperwork and start seeing it as your primary wealth engine.

That’s it for now.

Make sure to check out our IP Valuation kits, guides, and also our IP Valuation AI-Powered Tool, trained with valuation methods by the world’s leading IP associations, as well as the USPTO, USCO, the IRS, and the Treasury.

This is as close to a “formal valuation” as you can get.
We built this tool for ourselves.
Then, started offering it to our portfolio of clients.

Now, it’s here for you to leverage as well.
Comment IP Evaluation and we’ll send you the link.

Talk soon,

Sid Peddinti, Esq.

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#TradeSecrets #IntellectualProperty #BusinessStrategy #HiddenValue #IPAudit