Study of the linkages between innovation and intellectual property

Abstract

The incredibly fast evolving information ecosystem has created porous boundaries across industries and its market, disrupting the traditional models of innovation and questioning the theory of intellectual property (IP) as the method of appropriation. The means of innovation are shifting from independent ownership to collaborative and service based. This paradigm shift in the innovation process has an impact on the three primary firm level processes namely: Strategic Management (SMP), Innovation Management (IMP) and Technology Development (TDP). IP has been considered as the major incentive that enables innovation and existing literature studies the linkage between innovation and IP from an individual perspective — economic, social, development or standards to name a few. Too often the interests of the producer dominate the evolution of an IP policy, and that of the ultimate consumer is neither heard nor heeded. Certain firms have aligned their IP management to the new emerging perspective in one of two ways — individual alignment of their business models [IBM, SUN, P&G, Google] or as a consortium of specific technologies [3GPP, WiMAX patent partnership, Green IP patent partnership]. What variables should the firm's IP management system be aware that can help strategise its market position by banking on innovation outputs? We propose a set of variables (nature of the good, essentiality of IP and open innovation) that are useful to identify the role of IP to determine the innovation outputs.