Intellectual Property Cultural Audit

The Midlands Area Team would like to procure the services of a suitable consultancy or organisation to oversee the Intellectual Property Cultural Audit project. Working with the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) to carry out a full Intellectual Property (IP) audit of 6 x National Portfolio Organisations (NPO's) in the Midlands area. Demonstrating in economic terms the value of intangible assets, a process which is common in other creative industries, and creating a strategy for IP development.

Cultural organisations trade on their reputation, staff knowledge, contacts, services they provide and educational resources. This is the foundation for IP in a company, by going through this process IP can be formally identified, protected and quantified financially.

6. NPO's will be selected by the consultant and panel of Arts Council England (ACE) staff, to go through an initial scoping exercise to test the extent of IP held within the company and its suitability for the programme. The organisations will undergo a full IP audit, supported by GBSLEP. Each Local Enterprise Partnership has an outreach department of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) which undertakes these audits across business sectors.

It is expected that not all of the companies going through the process will have the capacity or IP resources to fully develop a strategy to protect and manage the assets. If this is the case the consultant will carry out a first stage assessment and with the LEP give suitable advice on how to approach IP going forward. If there is viable IP, companies will create an IP strategy and receive business support from the LEP to exploit and protect this, with the potential for developing additional income streams.

Case studies will be produced by the consultant showing the range of potential IP in the cultural sector. Three existing NPO's that utilise IP in their trading operations will be featured as case studies, as well as the 6 NPO's that have been part of the programme. The case studies will be used by ACE to create a toolkit for other arts organisations to review their current IP and its potential. The consultant will fully evaluate the programme. A final report will be submitted to ACE outlining the process of an IP audit, results from the test cases and recommendations going forward for cultural organisations who want to identify and protect the IP that is generated in their operational activity.