Greater flexibility in remote working environments for employees has led to an increase in the revolving door of new and departing employees and greater challenges for employers to keep up with on-boarding and exiting procedures to protect corporate intellectual property rights. Such intellectual property rights typically include patents that protect inventions; trademarks that protect a company's brand and reputation; copyrights that protect works of authorship and creativity; and trade secrets that protect a company's confidential or propriety information.

The on-boarding process serves as an ideal platform to identify any IP rights that may be owned by prior employers and to set the company's expectations regarding intellectual property rights utilized or developed during the course of employment. These processes should assist with screening for third-party IP, and specifically protect the company's IP both during and after the term of employment. It is far more efficient to address these issues up front with processes to posture the company in a favorable position with respect to protecting its IP in order to avoid costly litigation at a later date.