IP Strategies Research Articles

Strategic management of intellectual property for technology as an object of civil law relations

Strategic management of intellectual property for technology as an object of civil law relations

The Development and Utilization of Sports IP and Management Strategies

The Development and Utilization of Sports IP and Management Strategies

A comprehensive analysis of global patent landscape for recent R&D in agricultural drone technologies

The rapid development of information technology, along with advanced wireless communication technologies, has revolutionized the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) in many industries. In agriculture, due to the climate change and the growing global population, causing unprecedented demands and risks on food supplies, intelligent and automatic agricultural technologies are critical needs. UAVs offer a wide range of applications to transform traditional agricultural practices into Agriculture 4.0 that integrates advanced technology to optimize agricultural productivity, sustainability, and efficiency. To gain comprehensive insights into the current and future development of agricultural UAVs technologies, this research conducts extensive review and analysis of patents and non-patent literature in the field. By thoroughly examining the literature, the knowledge ontology of ag-UAV technologies is presented. Additionally, comprehensive macro- and micro-patent analyses identify the patenting trends and top tech-leaders for the key technologies related to agricultural drones. Moreover, utilizing regression modeling, technology maturity analysis, and technology-function matrix (TFM), the current and future R&D trends and the cold and hot spots of the technical innovations are identified. Through these detailed patent analyses, the state-of-the-art and potential advancements in agricultural UAV technologies are depicted, serving as crucial intelligence for R&D initiatives and IP strategies.

Technology transfer as a catalyst for effective university-industry collaboration in Botswana

The university-industry contractual research collaborations to solve complex problems jointly and create social and economic impact have long existed. Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) constitute formal technology intermediaries established to strengthen university-industry collaborations. However, the differences in needs and capabilities, individual and organizational backgrounds, and innovative learning modes inhibit effective partnerships. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how TTOs can catalyze these collaborations in Botswana. We use the grounded theory approach to examine the TTOs’ challenges and opportunities in strengthening university-industry linkages. Notably, we employ inductive analysis to synthesize interview data and analyze it using domain analysis and componential analysis. Data were extracted from the university and industry policies and documents and interviews with 102 participants from two universities (42.2%) and three industry firms (57.8%) involved in technology transfer. We found 71.6% had excellent knowledge and experience and 28.4% had varying degrees of experience. While individual or independent consultancies (44.1%) lead, TTOs facilitate collaboration through contractual research agreements (32.4%), technology licensing (22.5%), and joint ventures (10.8%). This demonstrates entities' significant access to each other's financial and technological resources. This allows entities to generate new knowledge, equip each other with tools and competencies required to produce commercial products and new revenue streams. Most significantly, while Botswana has displayed remarkable progress toward strengthening its institutional support systems for technology transfer and commercialization, there is a shortage of IP expertise at universities and industries, possibly leading to low levels of IP awareness. Also, most institutions have incomplete IP strategies, and there is inadequate administration and enforcement of intellectual property rights systems at the national level, possibly contributing to low national IP filings. Therefore, we recommend entities fully engage in vigorous IP activities, review and finalize their IP policies and make them flexible yet equitably based on the needs of the collaborating industry firms.

Product Companies Must Shift Patent Strategy as Inventions Go Digital

Overview: As traditional product companies move to offer digital products and services, they need new patent strategies. A shift to include both freedom-to-operate and freedom-of-action IP strategies will enable them to cost-effectively create a competitively advantaged position for both their core hardware and new digital/software business lines.

The Impact of Gene Patent Decision and the Changing IP Strategies of Myriad Genetics

The Impact of Gene Patent Decision and the Changing IP Strategies of Myriad Genetics

Repositioning Generic Drugs: Empirical Findings and Policy Implications

Commentators claim that drug repositioning (i.e. developing new uses for authorised drugs) significantly slows when generics are authorised and, therefore, law reform is necessary to encourage more R&D. This study empirically examines this claim by analysing records of clinical trials. It finds that once generics are authorised: (i) commercial trials continue at “active” rates for approximately half of the drugs studied, and (ii) the number of hospital and university trials actually increases. These findings cast doubt on whether additional incentives are needed. They also indicate that a more effective way to reposition drugs is for recently established government programmes to embrace IP strategies and leverage the hospital and university trials as an R&D pipeline.

Why do firms publish? A systematic literature review and a conceptual framework

In this paper, we address the question of ‘Why do firms publish scientific papers?’. Research examining the competitive advantages that firms accrue from investment in R&D has provided evidence that such efforts can be associated with the voluntary disclosure of research findings in scientific publications. This form of scientific openness occurs despite potentially undermining the value-capturing process by generating knowledge spillovers and hindering the use of other instruments for protecting intellectual property (patents and secrecy). Our understanding of what leads firms to engage in scientific publishing remains relatively limited, however. We address this gap by presenting a systematic review of 164 studies examining firm publishing. We then develop a conceptual framework that outlines five incentives for firms to engage in publishing: (i) accessing external knowledge and resources; (ii) attracting and retaining researchers; (iii) supporting IP strategies; (iv) building the firm's reputation; and (v) supporting commercialization strategies. Mechanisms that relate incentives to publish to firms' major stakeholders – i.e. academia, industry, investors, users, and institutions – are also outlined in the framework. We conclude by setting out an agenda for future research.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and its role in propelling the growth of the MSME sector

AbstractFor micro‐, small‐, and medium‐sized enterprises (MSMEs), the current economic scenario might be altering. The transformation of a country's socioeconomic standing, particularly in a developing country like India, is not a simple process. Micro, small, and medium‐sized firms are a varied and heterogeneous collection of enterprises with a wide range of ailments and constraints. In this respect, MSMEs should get involved in invention/innovation by doing continuous and productive research and development. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), is one aspect that can help MSMEs avoid stumbling blocks and achieve global standards. IPR is a broad term that encompasses all aspects of a company and serves as a valuable corporate asset. Patent and trademark databases include a plethora of technological and commercial information that MSMEs may use to learn about recent technological advances, discover prospective partners, and learn about rivals' creative activities. For entrepreneurs all around the world, efficiently managing intellectual property and leveraging it to develop company strategies is becoming increasingly important. In the last 7 years, India has launched several programs such as Digital India, Start‐Up India, Make in India, and Stand‐up India, as well as the current Aathmanirbhar Bharat, which aims to achieve a $5 trillion economy and long‐term sustainability. The enterprise, via its vigilance and vitality, should demonstrate remarkable innovativeness and flexibility to withstand the recent economic downturn, and IPR will provide many chances for future growth in this respect. MSMEs' IP strategies should take a comprehensive approach to the various forms of IP assets. In this article, we have emphasized the impact and relevance of IPR as a competitive strategy for propelling the growth of MSMEs. The objective is to raise MSME knowledge of IPRs so that they may take steps to safeguard their ideas and business plans.

System Dynamic and Simulation of Business Model Innovation in Digital Companies: An Open Innovation Approach

Digital companies must improve their business models evolutionarily and innovatively. Therefore, IT investment, especially for revitalizing digital capabilities for operational changes, is important. Most companies are looking to source innovation from outside organizations. Partnership assessment is a crucial problem since it is not easy to integrate internal and external capabilities. The study aims to define business model innovation based on system dynamics with partnership scenarios. Open innovation is needed to evolve to meet market expansion. Partnership and IP strategies are discussed. System Dynamics modeling is utilized to map a system structure to capture its behavior and the relationships between elements, creating a simulation over time. The study develops a BMI to show how OI variables significantly contribute to the engine of growth for digital companies. The simulation reveals that OI has a significant effect on the company’s performance, indicated by significantly growing revenue after two years. At the early stage, patenting IP is not practical since the companies involved are unclear about the detailed IP. The IP success or the partner failure rate does not affect revenue significantly. After two years, companies sharing IP find the best way to benefit from it and lead to sustainable growth.

Composite value index of trademark indicators: A market value analysis using Tobin's Q

This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the market valuation of a firm's intangible assets for U.S. firms during the period 1991–2015, exploring the relationship between Tobin's q, R&D, advertising, utility patents, international patent applications, design patents, trademarks, and value weighted IP measures. The Tobin's q is found to be positively and significantly associated with the proposed composite value index of trademark indicators above and beyond the other measures of intangible assets. The paper articulates some managerial implications on how firms could benefit from investing in trademarking and enlarge market value through the combination of multiple IP strategies.

IoT: A Mainstay Towards Intelligent Computing

After the .com boom, the next big thing in the 21st century is the “Internet of Things”. The “Internet of Things” is exploding and infusing intelligence globally. From infinitesimal chips to mammoth machineries, billions of smart gadgets communicate with each other with the aid of wireless devices. The day is not far when every physical item will no longer remain disconnected from the virtual world. Presently, your coffee kettle starts automatically when you wake up in the morning and lights go off when you leave home for your office where all devices are controlled/activated through your voice. Dream becomes reality, when the whole world will be running automatically and virtually with the initiation of a command. Connecting ‘Internet of Things’ with ‘Artificial Intelligence’, high-tech and scientific technologies will transform the world into a completely digital world. These two powerful pillars will build super-intelligent e-devices that are ready for new challenges. It will be made possible by evolving IP strategies, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), embedded sensors, actuators that are intelligently connected in machines and other physical objects. This paper aims to provide an insight into how the third wave of information technology i.e. Internet of Things (IoT) will interconnect the physical world using artificial intelligence. The paper will further discuss the building blocks of the IoT and the perspective areas where it can be implemented smartly.

From discovery to commercialization: accretive intellectual property strategies among small, knowledge-based firms

This paper explores the use of publications and patents and their covariates among small, knowledge-based firms pursuing technology commercialization. It does so through an empirical examination of 1180 small firms’ R&D projects, all of which were funded through Phase II U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards. As such, the paper responds to recent calls to investigate not only how small, knowledge-based firms utilize specific IP strategies but also how accretive logic specifically differs from competitive publishing and patenting logic.

New Business Model Canvas useful for Intellectual Property Departments

Business Model Canvas (BMC) describes the essential elements of a company, a business unit, a franchise, or a new product/service (later on all together named business) and is a useful tool for helping different support functions amongst a company to align. For Intellectual Property departments, a BMC is also a simple graphic way to contextualize their IP strategies. However current BMCs do not explicitly describe IP assets and mix the exploitation architecture with the RD architecture. IP counsels have thus to complete BMCs with additional documents to have a complete landscape. The main advantage of BMCs, namely centralizing in a single document all the essential elements of a strategy, is thus lost. The current paper describes a new Business Model Canvas explicitly designed for Intellectual Property departments while still being generic and helpful for other support functions.

정부지원 R&D와 IP 자금 분석 및 중소기업의 원천기술 확보 전략

정부지원 R&D와 IP 자금 분석 및 중소기업의 원천기술 확보 전략

Information asymmetry and the inefficiency of informal ip strategies within employment relationships

Employee mobility and betrayal increase the risks of disclosing unpublished technical information. This study builds a theoretical foundation for the loss of unpublished technical information regarding human capital. It analyzes the inefficiency of informal intellectual property (“IP”) strategies, which include non-disclosure agreements (“NDAs”), covenants not to compete (“CNCs”), and trade secrets, from the maximum probable loss approach. It bridges the legal literature and the economics literature by emphasizing and explaining the information asymmetries in employment relationships regarding the informal IP strategies. NDAs need to be supplemented by CNCs or trade secret law. Enforceable CNCs and trade secrets have a reward function, but trade secrets are more efficient in informal IP management and innovation. Beyond the legal risks imposed by informal IP, companies should actively improve employee loyalty and their security culture through employee management.

Strategizing for Dynamic consistency in Digital Innovation: The Role of Intellectual Property

IP strategy has moved from a primary focus on value capture to increasingly also consider aspects of value creation, not the least in digital innovation. Digital innovation has created a plethora of business models and enabled business models to change, sometimes rapidly, over time. All of this has complicated the general advice that the IP strategy should be integrated with the business model. In this research, we seek to better understand how digital technology-based startups use IP strategy to support their business models under uncertainty, and especially when business models are likely to change. We study seven digital technology-based startups through 35 semi-structured interviews with elite informants. In addition to IP strategizing for value creation and value capture we find that decision-makers strive to build and maintain dynamic consistency of their IP strategies, meaning that the strategies should be compatible with, and balance between, the firms’ current components of value creation and value capture, while simultaneously being compatible with future changes in the business models. The capability to achieve an IP strategy that is dynamically consistent is a dynamic capability of significant importance for innovative firms facing an uncertain future where business model change is likely to happen. We find several principles used by decision-makers to enable dynamic consistency.

Asian IP Law: An Area of Rising Importance

Abstract Intellectual property (IP) laws are an important instrument for promoting cooperation and peace in Asia. In their own ways, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India all serve as IP success stories. Structural features of the IP landscape in major Asian jurisdictions include the following: technocrat-driven IP law, national IP strategies and specialized IP or patent judges. In addition, there are five distinctively Asian developments worth noticing: the sweeping criminalization of copyright infringement, an explosion in the number of registered trademarks, the very limited use of compulsory patent licensing and the convergence on certain standards for the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs). On the other hand, it is notable that an open-ended and general fair use clause has had a mixed reception in Asian copyright and trademark law. Finding ways to enhance cooperation across Asia, steering IP regimes through trade deals and free trade agreements (FTAs), envisioning a fairer (or at least more functional) mechanism for paying creators, and improving the quality and performance of IP or patent judges are among the important issues that need addressing in the continuing effort to leverage IP laws as a tool for prosperity and peace in Asia.

Incorporation of Posttransplant Cyclophosphamide (PCy) As Part of Standard Immunoprophylaxis (IP) for All Allogeneic Transplants: A Retrospective, Single Institution Study

Background: The incorporation of PCy in IP has allowed transplantation of stem cells from haploidentical (HI) family members such that nearly all patients have a potential donor. Thus far, HI stem cell transplantation with PCy appears to yield comparable results to matched unrelated (MUD) and matched sibling donors (MSD) who have been treated with conventional GVHD regimens, but with less chronic GVHD (cGVHD). Particularly in light of the low incidence of cGVHD, which has not been achieved with other IP strategies after T cell-replete products, PCy is being investigated after MUD and MSD transplantation where complications from cGVHD remain the major cause of non-relapse mortality. A recent study from the BMTCTN showed that in patients conditioned with reduced intensity regimens and who received MSD and MUD stem cells, the addition of PCy to standard IP (SIP) was superior to either bortezomib or maravoric in the composite endpoint of graft-versus-host disease-free, relapse-free survival (GRFS). However, this study did not include patients who received ablative conditioning regimens and did not report on the percentage of patients who were disease-free and off immunosuppression (DFOI) at 1 year after transplant. In the present study, we have compared our experience with the addition of PCy for essentially all allogeneic stem cell transplants treated over a 2 year period with the results of patients treated with SIP in the prior two year span. Outcomes of interest included one-year overall survival (OS) and one-year GRFS as well as the percentage of patients DFOI at one year. Methods: With the exception of patients receiving umbilical cord blood transplants, beginning in April 2016, all but two patients who received allogeneic transplants were given mobilized peripheral blood stem cells and then treated with PCy on days +3 and +4 followed by tacrolimus and mycophenolate on day 5. In the absence of GVHD, mycophenolate was stopped at days +35-50 and tacrolimus was tapered beginning after day +100 unless there was low donor chimerism or a suspicion of relapse in which case tacrolimus could be tapered sooner. In order to have at least one-year follow-up, the last patient included in the study was treated before April 2018. During this time period, MSD were prioritized over MUD which in turn were chosen over haploidentical donors. For comparison, we looked at the prior 2 year period (2014-2016) in which patients were treated with SIP (including ATG in patients who received MUD stem cells). Because of a higher percentage of patients with an advanced disease risk index (DRI) in the years 2014-2016, we restricted our analysis in the SIP cohort to those patients with low and intermediate risk disease but included all patients in the more recent period who received PCy. Results: There were 68 patients treated in the PCy group, including 2 patients who received PCy after HI transplants in the years 2014 and 2015. After eliminating patients with high DRI there were 40 patients in the earlier SIP cohort of patients. The resulting patient groups were similar with respect to median age (53) and diagnosis (approximately 80% of patients with AML and ALL). There was a slightly higher percentage of patients in the SIP group with hematopoietic cell transplantation-comorbidity index scores of 3 or more (52.5 vs 48.5). In the PCy group the number of patients with early, intermediate and advanced DRI were 2, 53 and 13, whereas in the (modified) SIP category 2 patients had a low DRI and 38 had intermediate DRI. In the PCy group, HI donors comprised 26.5% of the total compared to 19.1% MSD and 54.4% MUD donors. In the SIP group, MSD and MUD donors accounted for 30% and 70% of the donors. One-year percentages of OS, GRFS and DFOI were 79.4, 47.1 and 44.1 in the PCy group compared to 72, 45 and 35 in the SIP cohort. If the analysis of the PCy group is limited to the 50 patients with MSD and MUD donors (as in the SIP cohort), the one-year OS, GRFS and DFOI are 88, 52 and 52. Conclusions: PCy in combination with SIP resulted in at least comparable results as SIP despite the inclusion of 19% of patients with a high DRI and 26.5% HI donors. The results with the addition of PCy are excellent in patients with MSD and MUD donors with more than half of the patients GRFS and DFOI at one year. Future studies on GVHD prophylaxis should report DFOI as the latter status may be the best platform for posttransplant strategies aimed at eliminating minimal residual disease and for improving QOL. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

A deeper look at the collective intelligence phenomenon

For the upcoming conference on Intelligence Studies at ICI 2020 in Bad Nauheim, Germany the focus of this issue of JISIB is on collective intelligence and foresight. The first two papers by Søilen and Almedia and Lesca deal with collective intelligence from an intelligence studies perspective. It may be said that the Internet itself is a gigantic collective intelligence effort, the largest in human history. Open source is a prerequisite for this system to work for everyone. The article by Černý et al. is on open source. All other contributions are on the connection between the Internet, software and intelligence. This issue consists of seven articles to compensate for two articles that were taken out by editors in the last issue. The first article by Søilen entitled “Making sense of the collective intelligence field: a review” is a historical review of the field of collective intelligence. The paper shows how collective intelligence is an interdisciplinary field and argues there is a flaw in the notion of “wisdom of crowds”. Collective intelligence can be understood in terms of social systems theory and as such this approach has been fruitful for the social sciences, although so far not very popular. It also bares relevance for the study of business and economics. The second article by Almeida and Lesca is entitled “Collective intelligence process to interpret weak signals and early warnings”. Early warning and the detection of weak signals is a vital topic for any intelligence organization. Two aspects are discussed in the paper, the importance of new technology and collective sense making or interpretation The third article by Shaikh and Singhal entitled “Study on the various intellectual property management strategies used and implemented by ICT firms for business intelligence” deals with intellectual property rights and patenting strategies. The authors identify a number of defensive and offensive IP strategies applied to ICT companies. The results have a bearing on patent acquisitions. The fourth article by Lamrhari et al. is entitled “Web intelligence for understanding customer satisfaction: application of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and the Kano model”. Customer satisfaction today is mostly measured with data from the internet, using different business intelligence techniques. The Kano model is still valuablei,ii, but the way we gather information to assess the different levels in the model has changed. The authors use Latent Dirichlet Allocation to analyze the voice of customer (VOC) in online reviews. They suggest that BI techniques and a fuzzy-Kano model can enable companies to better understand their customers’ online reviews. The fifth article by Nahili et al. is entitled “A new corpus-based convolutional neutral network for big data text analysis”. Companies need efficient ways to analyze everything that is said about them on the internet (reviews, comments). The paper suggests a convolutional neural network (CNN) as it has been successfully used for text classification. IMDB movie reviews and Reuters datasets were used for the experiment. The sixth article by Černý et al. is entitled “Using open data and google search data for competitive intelligence analysis”. Taking the Czech antidepressant market as an example, the authors show how competitive intelligence can be obtained using Google Search data, Google Trend and other OSINT sources. The seventh article by Dadkhah et al. is entitled “The potential of business intelligence tools for expert findings”. The paper suggests a way for researchers to find experts using business intelligence tools. The same method may also be used by any business or person looking for experts on a specific topic. As always, we would above all like to thank the authors for their contributions to this issue of JISIB. Thanks to Dr. Allison Perrigo for reviewing English grammar and helping with layout design for all articles and to the Swedish Research Council for continuous financial support. We hope to see you all at the ICI 2020 on the 16-17 March, 2020. The deadline for the two-page abstract submission is March 1st, 2020.