Many of our dedicated learning and development (L&D) clients seek engaging ways to educate their enterprise through online (eLearning) corporate training. These influential training videos range from workplace conduct to cyber security and privacy. But what if we told you there was a way you could set your organization apart from any other? Engaging in intellectual property courses can nurture workplace development and drive your organization’s next phase of growth and opportunity.
Not just a decision for the boardroom or executive suite
Corporate boardrooms and executive suites all over the world are filled with energy, enthusiasm, and heady conversations as they integrate intellectual property strategies into their business plans. Companies integrate intellectual property strategies to build and exploit all the right intangible assets, such as patents, trade secrets, trademarks/brands, copyrights, licensing agreements, and defensive publications.
Your organization’s intellectual property assets provide legal means to prevent competition from adding features or using methodologies to ingredients your organization employs to be unique.
Bright, experienced, and successful L&D experts succeed in almost every aspect of eLearning planning. L&D teams are the center of corporate training, with the most significant ability to implement eLearning programs efficiently and effectively. However, intellectual property is notably missing from the long list of eLearning courses initiated by L&D teams despite being arguably the most important.
Why? Because intellectual property touches every part of a business. From the creation, management, and commercial exploitation of intangible assets to non-traditional tasks of those who must carry them out means engineers, research and development, sales, marketing, procurement, legal and finance teams and every department in between needs dedicated intellectual property courses. So, the genuinely brilliant L&D team members, who thoroughly understand the risks and opportunities associated with intellectual property (IP), can expect plans to be carried out by everyone across their enterprise. They may not know what IP stands for, much less what IP means to them or their company. It’s a fatal disconnect.
Who can get involved in initiating enterprise-wide intellectual property courses?
What about the intellectual IP department, the executive suite or board members? Yes, many companies have IP departments and upper-level management. But, for every thousand employees, there might be one IP professional…perhaps none. And, those few IP professionals have jobs occupying them full-time each week.
They do not have the time or resources (or superpowers) necessary to sit next to every employee all-day/every day and counsel them about IP risks or opportunities that appear as each employee carries out their daily tasks.
What about having the IP department create enterprise intellectual property courses to spread IP fundamentals (and IP savvy) to every employee everywhere? This typically starts and finishes as a concept. Most IP departments are too understaffed to do anything more than run their departments and carry out many complicated tasks within their departments. And, with employees spread worldwide in different time zones and speaking different languages, even the most ambitious IP departments can only make training available for each employee once every other year or so. Unfortunately, IP is not a topic that lends itself well to one-and-done training. It’s too complicated, too subtle. Worse yet, IP professionals are typically not great at delivering corporate training. Let’s face it, no matter how smart they are, without a unique personality or in-depth training. Most people cannot hold an audience’s attention, particularly regarding a foreign topic like IP.
eLearning, Training, and Development is driven enterprise-wide by L&D departments
It is no secret that the L&D department is an expert at educating the masses. So, to be effective, to deliver training that an audience pays attention to, understands, and remembers, the L&D team can drive intellectual property eLearning by following these five components:
- An engaging presenter With stories or otherwise, the presenter must bring IP e into the lives of their employees.
- Modularized Again, IP is not one-and-done training. IP training must be delivered in short bursts (Ideally, every month… indefinitely).
- One size does NOT fit all. While IP touches every role in a business, it touches each role differently. For this reason, the IP training needs for one group might not be relevant (or enough) for those of another group. For example, R&D might need more training on patents and trade secrets; marketing might need more training on trademarks and patent marking, and sales might need more training on NDAs and selling patented features.
- Web-based/pre-recorded/LMS. Even before COVID, it was a practical impossibility to get everyone into a room together at the same time. Now, it’s even harder. Video-based training via a learning management system solves this problem. This is one of many reasons that IP training should be managed by the Learning & Development department… experts in delivering LMS-based training.
- Multi-language. Messages must reach people where they are. Today, people are everywhere. Multilingual eLearning: no matter the topic.
For L&D professionals looking to take on any course materials with their enterprise, you will need to consider the global nature of your employees. Of course, it can be highly challenging to develop eLearning courses that successfully communicate to various learners in various countries, speaking multiple languages, each with cultural nuances. That means the numerous elements supported in eLearning modules must be thoughtfully delivered to each intended audience without losing any of the original content’s meaning.
If you don’t already, it is time to understand how to localize your multilingual eLearning project for your global audience. Localized eLearning projects can help your business pivot in a post-pandemic world when you successfully employ eLearning for remote employees, online educational institutions, and many more industries seeing a boom in hiring and onboarding employees.
Localized courses allow for improved comprehension, lower costs, and higher retention. Should you decide to offer localized multilingual eLearning or want to learn more about producing multilingual eLearning courses, visit our eLearning Localization page.
Take IP training into your own hands on September 23rd, join IP and eLearning experts; Ray Guarnieri of ExecutiveIP, Samuel Wu of Morningside A Questel Company, Daniel Barta of H.B Fuller Company, and Brittany Misich of GKN Automotive during their webinar, “Drive Intellectual Property Training across your Enterprise: an L&D Competitive Advantage” where we will take an hour to discuss:
- How HR and L&D can drive growth and innovations within an organization
- What are IP assets
- Why IP assets in a competitive global marketplace
- Testimonials on how IP training is a competitive advantage at GKN Automotive and H.B. Fuller.
- Tips for communicating to your global employees
Register to join us live or receive a recording. Later on, we look forward to helping your L&D department gain a competitive advantage through IP training.
About Executive IP
Executive IP, A Questel Company, was founded as an Intellectual Property training company nearly a decade ago. Our first videos were about Patents, Trade Secrets, Trademarks and Copyrights. We’ve built our business, teaching some of the most innovative companies in the world how these intangible assets have become the most valuable corporate assets of the 21st century.
Since then, our clients (some of the largest corporations in the world) have enlisted us to produce their training videos on Workplace Conduct, Soft Skills, Leadership, and Legal Compliance topics. While Intellectual Property is still a cornerstone of our business, we’ve grown to serve a wide range of training needs!
About Morningside
Morningside, a Questel Company, is a recognized leader in eLearning translation, providing a full range of language and multimedia services to help you deliver instruction and content to employees, end users, and customers around the globe.
Our complete multimedia services include desktop publishing (DTP), voiceovers, subtitling, and more. We provide a one-stop solution for your multimedia localization project, from transcription & translation to testing & QA. Whatever the complexity of your project, we offer customized solutions that meet your budget and deliver the completed project on time and in any format you require.
Whether your focus is educating and orienting a global workforce or delivering on-demand research and collaboration, Morningside has the expert knowledge and proven experience to help you make the most of your global learning and training programs. We provide fast turnaround times, unparalleled accuracy and 24-hour customer support, with a proven track record of delivering projects on time and on budget.
Ray Guarnieri, Vice President of Global Business Development for Executive IP, a Questel Company, Is responsible for ensuring Executive IP remains the world leader in enterprise IP training solutions. This includes the product, marketing, and sales strategy. He has held previous positions in Content Development and Operations Management. He is also the Chief Marketing Officer for The Colson Law Group, a boutique IP law firm based in Buffalo, NY. Ray brings a decade of experience in the entertainment industry creating high-quality media to the world of corporate training. He has proven expertise in strategizing and implementing IP training programs for Global 1,000 companies.