For companies whose top management understands the business maturity of their own organization, a double check can be done for new business development projects to ensure that the way in which they are done is consistent with the business maturity of the company undertaking them. A common model is to use six different levels of business maturity running from undifferentiated companies through those to provide platform leadership. The “Business Maturity Model Attributes” figure shows these levels in the attributes associated with each level.

The key to using the business maturity model shown in the “Business Maturity Model Attributes” figure is just to test if the intellectual property posture and focus is consistent with the level of business maturity a company has is seeking. If not organizational changes to improve the intellectual property management practices needs to be undertaken to get full business value from new business development projects.