Intellectual Property Strategy

by Palfrey, John

• ISBN13: 9780262516792
• ISBN10: 0262516799
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-07
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, coauthor of Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, and author of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge volume Intellectual Property Strategy.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction
The Self-Limiting Myth of the Sword and the Shield	p. 1
Why Intellectual Property Matters	p. 17
Recommendation	p. 1
Treat Intellectual Property as a Core Asset Class	p. 35
Recommendation	p. 2
Benefit from the Intellectual Property of Others - Legally	p. 59
Recommendation	p. 3
Create Freedom of Action through Intellectual Property	p. 77
Recommendation	p. 4
Establish a Flexible Intellectual Property Strategy	p. 87
The Special Case of the Nonprofit	p. 109
Future Outlook	p. 125
Afterword
What the Author Really Thinks	p. 143
Glossary	p. 147
Notes	p. 151
Recommended Reading	p. 159
About the Author	p. 165
Index	p. 167
Available online (at http://mitpress.mit.edu/ipstrategy):
Case Studies
Collegiate Licensing	p. CS-3
Follow-on Biologies	p. CS-11
InnoCentive	p. CS-19
Museum Licensing	p. CS-25
Smartphones	p. CS-33
Starbucks versus Ethiopia	p. CS-41
University Technology Commercialization	p. CS-49
Notes to Case Studies	p. CS-59
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