How a flexible and creative approach to intellectual property can help
an organization accomplish goals ranging from building market share to
expanding an industry.
Most managers leave intellectual property issues to the legal
department, unaware that an organization's intellectual property can
help accomplish a range of management goals, from accessing new markets
to improving existing products to generating new revenue streams. In
this book, intellectual property expert and Harvard Law School professor
John Palfrey offers a short briefing on intellectual property strategy
for corporate managers and nonprofit administrators. Palfrey argues for
strategies that go beyond the traditional highly restrictive "sword and
shield" approach, suggesting that flexibility and creativity are
essential to a profitable long-term intellectual property
strategy--especially in an era of changing attitudes about media.
Intellectual property, writes Palfrey, should be considered a key
strategic asset class. Almost every organization has an intellectual
property portfolio of some value and therefore the need for an
intellectual property strategy. A brand, for example, is an important
form of intellectual property, as is any information managed and
produced by an organization. Palfrey identifies the essential areas of
intellectual property--patent, copyright, trademark, and trade
secret--and describes strategic approaches to each in a variety of
organizational contexts, based on four basic steps.
The most innovative organizations employ multiple intellectual property
approaches, depending on the situation, asking hard, context-specific
questions. By doing so, they achieve both short- and long-term benefits
while positioning themselves for success in the global information
economy.
