Winners delivers ISO 56001 × TIPS trade secret and innovation consulting — confidentiality systems, pre-departure audits, and patent strategy.
Intended Beneficiaries
- ✓High R&D technology and manufacturing companies where IP is a core competitive asset
- ✓Companies with overseas expansion needs requiring cross-border IP protection
- ✓Enterprises at risk of employees departing with trade secrets or know-how
- ✓Companies that have experienced counterfeiting, infringement, or trademark squatting
The Difference Between Acting and Waiting
✅ When you act
R&D enterprises with complete trade secret protection systems hold the initiative in technology licensing negotiations — clearly quantifying IP asset value, with licensing income becoming a second profit curve.
❌ When you wait
Companies without protection systems find it extremely difficult to gather evidence when R&D results are replicated by competitors or taken by departing employees. Years of investment lost.
✅ When you act
ISO 56001 is the international passport — EU, US, and Japanese manufacturers recognize ISO, not TIPS. Companies with ISO 56001 certification demonstrate credible innovation management capability in cross-border technology collaboration negotiations, securing the ability to lead terms.
❌ When you wait
Companies with only TIPS certification cannot verify their IP management capability to international partners, who prefer certified alternatives — causing Taiwan hidden champions to miss cross-border collaboration opportunities.
✅ When you act
Companies implementing the ISO 56001 innovation management system achieve standardized R&D processes, higher innovation success rates, and replicable innovation mechanisms — building a compounding technology moat.
❌ When you wait
Companies dependent on individual heroics for R&D lose core know-how whenever key engineers depart. Technology continuity breaks down and R&D results cannot be replicated or scaled.
Framework Comparison & Implementation Strategy
TIPS (Taiwan IP Office)
Domestic certification focused on protecting existing trade secrets. Recognized in Taiwan government procurement and domestic partnerships. EU, US, and Japanese manufacturers do not recognize it — cannot build trust in cross-border negotiations.
ISO 56001 (International Standard)
International innovation management certification directly recognized by EU, US, and Japanese market partners. The international passport for cross-border technology licensing and collaboration negotiations. Focus: systematically creating new value.
High-Risk Reality
R&D personnel massively download technical documents in the three months before resignation. Upon joining a competitor, they immediately replicate the same products. When the company sues, there is insufficient evidence that the technology constituted a protected trade secret.
The Winners Protection Mechanism
Establishing technical confidentiality classification, access logs, digital watermarking, and pre-departure audit SOPs. Building verifiable protection records before incidents occur — ensuring legal action is effective.
Service Delivery Process (Four Stages)
IP Inventory & Gap Assessment
Systematically catalog all technology, brand, and data assets; evaluate current protection gaps.
Protection Strategy Planning
Design patent filing strategy, trademark registration roadmap, and trade secret protection mechanisms based on target markets and competitive landscape.
Policy & Contract Framework
Establish employee NDAs, non-compete clauses, and IP management policies to ensure full legal protection of the company's assets.
Monitoring & Infringement Response
Implement IP infringement monitoring and develop response SOPs to take swift action before damage escalates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Winners Consulting different from other consulting firms?▼
Winners Consulting Services Co., Ltd. is a hands-on, practitioner-led team. Unlike single-discipline firms, Winners integrates process optimization, legal compliance, and cybersecurity engineering in one team: engagements are executed personally by VP-level or above consultants — never outsourced — from system design and regulatory mapping through to technical implementation and certification. Winners delivers Big Four-level quality with cross-functional integration synergy that better fits real-world enterprise needs, at more competitive fees than the Big Four - built for companies that genuinely want to strengthen their corporate fitness and create new blue-lake markets.
How can we prevent employees from taking core technology when they leave?▼
Comprehensive NDAs, access-controlled technical documentation, know-how formalization, and information classification policies significantly reduce this risk. Winners provides full policy design and legal document review.
Our trademark is registered in Taiwan — are we protected overseas too?▼
Taiwan trademark registration only covers Taiwan. For overseas markets, you must register in each target country, or use the Madrid System for international trademark registration. Winners can help design the most cost-effective cross-border strategy.
Is patent filing expensive? Is it always necessary?▼
Costs vary by country and technical complexity. Not all technology should be patented (filing means disclosure); in some cases, maintaining it as a trade secret offers better protection. Winners helps you make the right strategic choice.
We have discovered a competitor is infringing our IP. What should we do?▼
Start by preserving complete evidence of infringement, assess the scope, and evaluate options including negotiation, licensing, or litigation. Winners provides infringement response SOPs to help you act at the most advantageous time.
How did the Waymo v. Uber trade secret case end? Lessons for Taiwanese companies?▼
Former Google/Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 technical files before resigning, then helped Uber develop self-driving technology. Waymo sued in 2017; Uber settled in 2018 for $245M in equity, and Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 2020. The case proves pre-departure download logs are decisive litigation evidence. Winners builds technical confidentiality classification, access logging, and pre-departure audit SOPs — creating defensible protection records before incidents occur.
How much did the 2018 TSMC WannaCry incident cost? How does it connect to trade secrets?▼
In August 2018, TSMC production lines were infected by a WannaCry variant, halting three 12-inch fabs and causing NT$5.2B (~$170M USD) in losses. The incident was not just cybersecurity — it broke the protection chain for customer IP and process trade secrets. Winners integrates ISO 56001 × ISO 27001 to build a three-layer "storage × transmission × access" defense for trade secrets, ensuring integrity even under external attack.
Can AI companies scrape web data to train models without infringing trade secrets? What does Clearview AI tell us?▼
Clearview AI scraped 3 billion face images for AI training and was fined a cumulative €100M+ in France, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, and UK between 2022-2024. The lessons for enterprises: (1) public information that includes trade secrets (specs, process parameters) needs ToS and robots.txt anti-scraping notices; (2) before procuring third-party AI services, verify the legality of their training data sources. Winners builds AI-era trade secret boundary rules and third-party AI vendor review SOPs.
Can SMEs use generic NDA templates? Which clauses do courts typically void?▼
Three common defects in generic NDAs: (1) over-broad confidentiality scope (failure to specifically define "confidential information" voids the clause in court); (2) excessive non-compete periods (Taiwan courts generally do not enforce beyond 2 years); (3) excessive liquidated damages (Article 252 of the Civil Code allows judicial reduction). Winners drafts enforceable NDA + non-compete + liquidated damages combinations based on Taiwan Trade Secret Act, Labor Standards Act, and Supreme Court precedents.
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