The other other other 1%

24 August 2026

Edited: 16 September 2026

There's a quote frequently attributed to Gary Player, and which South Africans of a certain age and lifestyle are fond of quoting: "the more I practice, the luckier I get". Like most of the good quotes, this is probably misattributed. Also, like most of the good quotes, it's actual meaning is nebulous enough to be applied to many situations. For now, I'd like to invoke it to gesture at the issue of IP management. Because the truth is that 99% of IP, even registered IP like patents, isn't worth a damn thing. But the remaining 1% is worth worrying a lot about, because it can make or break your business. And here is the kicker: there's usually no way of knowing ahead of time which piece of IP is in the 1% or the 99%.

A few representative examples: a cartoon mouse was a big enough deal that Disney spent decades successfully lobbying the American government to extend the copyright term of artistic works in the period covering the said cartoon mouse's first outings to the public. The formula of a specific soft drink was a big enough deal that the Coca Cola company has been carefully guarding it as a secret for the past 130 years. And one of the most successful drugs of all time was a result of a holiday and poor lab technique. There have been thousands, perhaps millions, of cartoon animals, soft drink formulas and poorly-cultured petri dishes over the years. But these turned out to be the important, commercially-valuable ones.

Which means that, lacking a crystal ball, we unfortunately have to manage all 100% of our IP as if it may be the valuable 1%. Or, at least, have a way of managing our IP that allows us to derive some value from the 1% when and if it shows itself to have the potential for value. This isn't a request to spend oneself into bankruptcy trying to commercialise every piece of IP which you produce, nor is it to argue that every piece of IP should be guarded like a dragon sitting on a pile of gold.