The Neuron Intellectual Property Management system is an enterprise software platform that manages intangible assets including intellectual property.

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intangible asset management
including intellectual property

2. This document is the proprietary and exclusive property of Australis Comm (Pty) Limited (“Australis®”),
except as otherwise indicated. No part of this document, in whole or in part, may be reproduced,
stored, transmitted, or used for design purposes without the prior written permission of Australis Comm
(Pty) Limited.
While Australis® has no reason to believe that there are any errors or omissions in the information
contained in this document, Australis does not represent or warrant that the document is free from
error, and does not assume, and expressly disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage
caused by errors or omissions in the document, whether such errors or omissions result from
negligence, accident or any other cause.
© 2010 Australis Comm (Pty) Limited
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disclaimers
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3. table of contents
Disclaimers
Introduction
What is Intellectual Property?
Importance of Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Management
Levels of Intellectual Property Management
Professional Services
Australis® Value Offering
Software Solutions
Neuron® Intangible Asset Management Solution
Neuron® Toolkits
Neuron® Technical Information
Contact Us
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© 2010 Australis Comm (Pty) Limited
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4. introduction
Australis® Comm (Pty) Limited is a specialist Intangible Asset Management (IAM)
company founded in 1998.
Australis® specialises in providing both consulting in the specialist area of Intangible Assets including
Intellectual Property (IP) and the provision of software solutions for the management of Intangible
Assets, throughout the entire lifecycle from ideas management to product and the subsequent
commercialisation thereof thereafter, under its Neuron® brand.
Most companies are undervalued due to the fact that their Intangible Assets have not been properly
considered and valued. Australis® together with its associates endeavour to increase the value of
organisations through the identification, management and reporting on Intangible Assets. The result-
ing increase in value benefits the organisation, especially during mergers and acquisitions, licensing or
the sale of Intangible Assets etc. Furthermore, ensuring an organisation’s compliance with Primary and
Secondary Intellectual Property legislation as well as compliance with International Accounting Stan-
dards and International Financial Reporting Standards contributes to improved corporate governance
and enterprise risk mitigation.
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Australis® currently assists medium to large
private sector and public sector organisations
with the management of their Intangible Assets
including Intellectual Property both nationally
and internationally.

5. what is intellectual property?
There are many practical aspects of a business that can be protected, including but not limited to any
property that is derived from the work of the mind of intellect; specifically an idea, invention, trade
secret, process, program, data, formula, patent, copyright, or trade mark or application, right, or
registration relating thereto.
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importance of intellectual property
Intellectual Property, whether registered or not, are valuable assets for your business – possibly among
the most important it possesses.
In the competitive world market the winners are those corporations which hold a competitive advantage
and one mechanism through which such an advantage can be gained and sustained is through the
generation and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
In addition to setting you apart from your competitors, IP helps in:
• Offering customers something new and different;
• Preventing competitors from copying or closely imitating a company’s products or services;
• Avoiding wasteful investment in research and development (R&D) and marketing as a result
of the previous point;
• Creating a corporate identity through a trade mark and branding strategy;
• Negotiating licensing, franchising or other IP-based contractual agreements which provides an
important revenue stream;
• Increasing the market value of the company;
• Acquiring venture capital and enhancing access to finance; and
• Obtaining access to new markets.
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intellectual property management
Effective IP management enables companies to use their IP assets to improve their competitiveness and
strategic advantage and also provides enhanced corporate value.
Acquiring IP protection is a crucial initial step, but effective IP management means more than just
protecting an enterprise’s inventions, trade marks, designs, or copyright. It also involves a
company’s ability to commercialize such inventions, market its brands, license its know-how, conclude
joint ventures and other contractual agreements involving IP, and effectively monitor and enforce
its Intellectual Property rights. Indeed, a company’s portfolio of IP must be viewed as a collection of key
assets that add significant value to the enterprise.
Organisations can also benefit from the wealth of technological and commercial information available
in patent and trademark databases to learn about recent technological breakthroughs, identify future
partners, and find out about the innovative activities of competitors. Managing IP effectively and using
it to devise business strategies is an increasingly critical task for management worldwide.
Increased global competition has driven the need for collaboration and partnering between
organisations internationally in order to achieve success. To ensure that collaborative efforts are
co-ordinated and managed successfully, cost effective uniform systems and interfaces are required
that can be accessed both centrally and remotely by all stakeholders.
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Knowledge organisations are increasingly becoming aware
of the need to manage their Intangible Assets in order to
ensure sustainable competitiveness and market growth.
High levels of competition and rigorous compliance
internationally coupled with the shortening of product and
market life cycles are placing pressure on organisations to
ensure quicker product delivery and profit.

7. levels of intellectual property management
There are 5 levels of Intellectual Property management that can be deployed within organisations and
the extent of the organisation’s level of maturity determines which level of management they employ.
Intellectual Property Management is generally initiated within organisations as a result of them
wanting to protect their product and/ or technology through the registration of some form of registered
Intellectual Property such as a patent, trade mark or design etc.
As organisations mature in the area of IP Management they begin to proceed to look at cost control
measures to ensure a good cost benefit ratio. During this phase the organisation will analyse their
IP Portfolio to determine whether any of its IP should be continued or withdrawn based on its cost
implications and strategic value.
The next level of IP Management involves the acknowledgement and understanding that IP is valuable
and that it can be utilised as an important revenue generator. Here, the focus of the company is around
entering into license agreements and other relationships that will generate income from the IP of the
organisation.
The next level of IP Management is the integration of IP into the objectives and strategy of the
organisation. In this situation, the organisation understands that IP creates a differential advantage for
the company and that IP should be developed in support of the company’s objectives and strategies.
The final level of IP Management involves the company viewing IP as an integral part of the vision and
direction of the company. Here IP is seen as the life blood of the organisation, ensuring its survival and
success in an ever increasing competitive global community.
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IP Maturity Level

8. professional services
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To fully understand the consulting services offered by Australis® one has to look at the Intangible
Asset Management lifecycle, which commences with the management and assessment of ideas to the
establishment and management of projects and the development, protection and commercialisation of
products, services and technologies thereafter.
The management of an organisation’s Intellectual Property therefore can involve different consulting
disciplines, which include but are not limited to business analysts, software architects and engineers,
researchers, Intellectual Property attorneys, auditors and ultimately commercial experts involved in
licensing and other commercial activities.
The role of Australis® is to provide clients with a single interface that professionally and effectively
manages all aspects of the organisation’s Intangible Assets, including IP throughout the Intangible
Asset Life cycle.
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Australis® together with its associates, where applicable, provide the following related services through-
out the Intangible Asset Lifecycle:
Ideas Management
• Establishing structures so that the right people evaluate ideas;
• Implementation of processes and procedures to evaluate ideas;
• Evaluation of ideas to ensure that only the best ideas are implemented;
• Market analysis and competitive intelligence; and
• Intellectual Property landscape analysis.
IP related activities involved in Research and Development
• Intellectual Property landscape analysis (Identifying what patents exist in the same or
similar R&D field);
• Market and industry analysis to identify market demand for the R&D outcome and
potential markets, partners, licencees and IP acquirers;
• Competitive intelligence to identify competitors and their R&D initiatives;
• Development of agreements (R&D agreements, employment agreements, non disclosure
agreements and third party consulting agreements etc.);
• Risk management within projects (HR, Information, Strategy etc.);
• Analysis of projects (Strategic alignment and value, outcomes etc.);
• Management and protection of research results (Controlled access to information and
documents, including Inventor Notebooks);
• Registration of IP (Patents, designs, trade marks, plant breeder rights etc.);
• Disclosure of inventions not requiring protection within applicable journals (Preventing
competitors from patenting existing R&D outcomes);
• Assistance with the publication of research results; and
• Compliance with primary and secondary IP legislation.
australis® value offeringa
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Effective IP Management is
critical to an organisation’s success
Transforming assets from
intellect to business
professional services
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10. IP related activities involved in Commercialisation:
• Intellectual Property landscape analysis, market and industry analysis and competitive
intelligence to identify markets, potential licensees, partners or IP acquirers etc.;
• Commercialisation strategy development;
• Technology transfer and commercialisation activities;
• Development of agreements (License agreements, franchise agreements, distribution
agreements and sale agreements etc.);
• Valuation of IP (Maximising IP value)
• Licensing (in and out licensing) and royalty management;
• Sale of IP;
• Securitisation of IP (Accessing funding by means of the value of your IP);
• Mergers and Acquisitions (Identifying the IP of the company and its values);
• Compliance with primary and secondary IP legislation; and
• International structuring and taxation (Identifying the best corporate and tax effective
vehicle to house your IP).
Ongoing IP management activities:
• IP audits (Identification of existing Intellectual Property);
• Assessment of current uses of Intellectual Property to determine licensing opportunities etc.;
• Ongoing IP portfolio management
• Intellectual Property analysis (Identifying whether to keep, drop or develop
the company’s IP);
• Market and Industry analysis;
• Competitive Intelligence;
• Risk management; and
• IP registration and maintenance;
• Primary Intellectual Property legislation compliance; and
• Secondary Intellectual Property legislation compliance.
• IP Strategy development aligned with business objectives and strategies
(Defensive/ Offensive);
• Development of IP policies and procedures;
• IP training (Building IP competency and awareness);
• Due diligence investigations;
• IP acquisition;
• Tracking and managing IP litigation;
• Accounting, Reporting & Tax Strategies;
• Tracking of IP income and expenditure;
• Tax benefit recovery interventions (i.e. R&D incentives);
• International Accounting Standards compliance;
• International Financial Reporting Standards compliance; and
• Other international legislation compliance such as Sarbanes-Oxley which
ensures good corporate governance.
australis® value offering continued...
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Your organisation is
most likely undervalued

11. software solutions
intangible asset management solution
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Neuron® is a web based and smart client enterprise business software platform which has specifically
been developed to manage Intangible Assets, including Intellectual Property, within medium to large
organisations both locally and internationally. The value of Neuron is fully realised when combined with
the consulting services provided by Australis®.
The Neuron® Intangible Asset Management (IAM) System manages and analyses relevant information
and documentation and reports on the entire Intangible Asset including Intellectual Property
lifecycle from ideas to product and its subsequent commercialisation and compliance with Primary
and Secondary Intellectual Property legislation and other international legislation such as
Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.
Neuron® automates and streamlines common IP management functions and helps to safeguard
Intellectual Property assets and make better decisions about those assets thereby deriving maximum
value from your Intellectual Property portfolio.
Neuron® manages Intangible Assets, including Intellectual Property which include, but is not limited
to, components such as research and development, projects, agreements, trade secrets, know how,
third party confidential information, competitive information, litigation, client lists and documents, etc.
Neuron® also manages Intellectual Property such as patents, trade marks, designs, domain names and
plant breeders’ rights etc. In addition to the above, the system also manages other related matters
which impact on Intangible Assets and enterprise risk such as inventors, applicants, employees, third
parties and policies and procedures.
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intangible asset management solution
Neuron® tracks expenditure on research and development, asset acquisition and expenditure relating
to the development and protection of registered Intellectual Property, etc as well as income derived
from licensing and royalty fees. This capability allows Australis® to realise tangible financial benefits for
organisations through lucrative tax incentives and also ensures compliance with local and international
legislation and regulations such as the International Accounting Standards and International Financial
Reporting Standards, etc. which deals with Intangible Asset reporting.
Neuron® provides a 360˚ view of the organisations Intangible Assets including Intellectual Property,
thereby enabling easy management and identification of issues requiring action.
The Neuron® platform typically includes 14 core modules which, when combined, produces tangible
organisational value, improved risk management, corporate governance and the elimination of
constraints impacting the acquisition, protection and maintenance and commercialisation of an
organisation’s Intangible Assets.
The modules are as follows:
• Information Management Module;
• Document Management Module;
• Messaging Module;
• Reminders Module;
• Reporting Module;
• Administration Module;
• 360° Relationship Linking Module;
• Analysis Module;
• Strategy Module;
• Risk and Compliance Module;
• Training Module;
• Decision Module;
• Workflow Module;
• Help Module.
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Neuron® aims to deliver value,
market sustainability and growth, governance
and the elimination of risks associated
with IP within organisations.

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technical information
Neuron® is written on the Microsoft.Net (3.5 and 4.0) framework and designed according to the
Microsoft® enterprise patterns and practices.The nature of the platform provides certain key advantages
such as:
• Flexible and fast rollout within the organisation;
• Effective maintenance and support of software;
• Low end user system requirements;
• Collaboration by system users and other stakeholders;
• Web services ready; and
• Centralised security.
The platform also caters for load balancing and server farming, which ensures scalability of the solution.
The platform has the ability to connect to a wide variety of backend databases; however the primary
database of choice is Microsoft® SQL 2008.
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software solutions
toolkits
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The following toolkits have also been developed to enable multiple methods of data and document
input into the Neuron® platform, thereby ensuring ease of use and successful adoption by end users:
• Microsoft® Outlook Plug-in (Local and remote);
• Microsoft® Office Plug-in (Local and remote);
• SmartScan Toolkit (Local and remote);
• SmartIndex Toolkit (Local and remote);
• Novell® GroupWise Plug-in (in development);
• Fax Navigator™ - Intelligent indexing and routing of incoming faxes;
• Management Dashboards;
• Neuron® Assimilator (Integration tool).
The diagram below indicates the typical communication channels into Neuron®.
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14. © 2010 Australis Comm (Pty) Limited
contact us
Visit the Australis® website at http://www.australis.co.za
Australis® is a registered trade mark of Australis® Comm (Pty) Limited.
Neuron® is a registered trade mark of Australis® Comm (Pty) Limited.
Fax Navigator™ is a registered trade mark of Australis® Comm (Pty) Limited.
www.australis.co.za is a domain name registered in the name of Australis® Comm (Pty) Limited
For additional information please contact Australis® Comm (Pty) Limited:
Postal P.O. Box 2221, Cresta, 2118, Gauteng, South Africa
Tel +27 (0)11 431 3633
Fax +27 (0)11 476 5490
E-mail info@australis.co.za
URL http://www.australis.co.za
Company Registration Number 1998/016569/07
VAT Registration Number 4710202120
Bankers Nedbank Limited, Blackheath Branch, Johannesburg, South Africa
Auditors Rothmann & Co. (Registered Chartered Accountants in South Africa)
Attorneys Werksmans Inc., D.M. Kisch Inc., Bouwers Attorneys Inc.
PASA registered System Operator
Member of the Licensing Executives Society (LES)
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