The strategy of designing around existing patents in technology innovation

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to develop a systematic framework of strategy of designing around existing patents in enterprises' innovative activities. After reviewing the choice of strategy and principle of the design to evade the existing patents, this paper discusses how to select the target patent under enterprise's strategy, before finally taking the designing around existing patent based on patent standardisation as an successful implementation of innovative process.Design/methodology/approachThis is an exploratory research with a case study of critical technology of OTFT to illustrate the application of the proposed strategy. The choice of strategy of designing around existing patents is analyzed on the basis of judgments of patent infringement, and a framework of selecting target patent is proposed for the development of strategy of designing around existing patents as an innovation process.FindingsThis research suggests that technology innovation based on designing around existing patent should focus on choosing technology from the target patent of critical technology, choosing a policy that can balance the risk of patent infringement and costs of technology innovation and combining the policy of designing around existing patent and the application of TRIZ theory.Originality/valueThe framework proposed in this paper provides an alternative strategy of technological innovation for technology follower firms.