General Electric’s To-Do List Includes Divvying Up Huge IP Assets

General Electric Co. will have to decide how to allocate billions of dollars’ worth of patents, along with other intellectual property such as its name and iconic logo, as part of its split.

How smoothly GE manages the assets could impact its ability to transition to more efficient, streamlined entities and clamp down on debt. A fluid transition would allow the three new companies to move forward and focus on their respective business concerns. A contested one could divert resources and delay their split into units focused on health care, aviation, and energy.

Parsing the massive volume of IP will ...