Innovation CHEF

Henry Chesbrough of Open Innovation fame gives a very detailed presentation of his material in this 2004 video presentation to the Xerox PARC community. He puts forward the idea that innovators need to become conversant with the principles of IP management in order to be able to access external technology and maximize the return of investment of their own labs.

Check it out here.

Of course this is preaching to the choir here.

A complete innovation delivery has to include some consideration of what happens when you are successful! Basic knowledge around Patent Law isn’t hard to understand. A business that depends on technology requires an IP strategy to protect and grow THE BUSINESS.

If you are in the Business of Innovation I would fully recommend “The Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Licensing” course organised and delivered by the Licensing Excecutives Society Internal (LESI)

I would not for a minute diminish the important role your attorney or patent agent will play. Some things are clearly too important to do in a DIY fashion. Innovators who understand IP and businesses that understand IP and have developed strategies will use their legal resources more effectively and get much better value.

I have probably spent as much time involved in the management of IP as I have in Innovation practice and see the benefits that having both bring.

Interested in Feedback of course…

• First you have a business strategy.
• Then you have an IP strategy.
• Then you have Business Strategy.

There are a lot of things to consider when building a business. Especially a tech business. Especially if it is a new technology that you are going to set the world alight with. Getting the product right, pulling in customers and getting the finance … these are all crucial to success. An IP strategy doesn’t lead the business but no business should be without one.

I’d also argue very strongly that the IP strategy should not be left to the lawyers, shouldn’t be the responsiblity of the R&D guys but should be front and center with the business heads. Why? IP is a business asset and like any asset you need to be mindful of the the return you are making from it. IP is a control point for your business. If you have a patent you can exclude others or through licensing allow access to those who you have chosen to make a deal with – thats a big deal.

Always identify the Key IP. The stuff that makes a difference. The reason why someone will come to you rather than someone else.

Without getting overly complicated here are three things to consider. There are many more factors and nuances but these are biggies:

1. You only have protection where you look for it so do you know where your market is? Do you know where it will be in 5, 10, 20 years time? Consider what happens when your product is successful. Even if there are geographies that you couldn’t exploit directly – could someone else?  Wouldn’t it be better if that happened on your terms?
2. In most countries the exclusive right granted to a patent holder is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission. Think about locations where your product could be manufactured or key ports it might need to travel through.
3. Check for workarounds to your invention, check for modifications that can be made to your product that could dent your revenue stream. Make sure that the patent claims protect your business not that they protect certain technical choices that you made. You could have a brillantly written patent that is worthless because a competitor chose a way that was second best technically but leveraged other factors such as price or brand and they now own the market. If you can own second best, and third best then do so too.

IP is there to help protect the revenue stream and profits that you are working so hard to get. It is not an insurance policy for when things go wrong so much as a protection policy to maximise your upside when things go right. If the business doesn’t work out quite as you hoped you can always scale back on that investment or sell it on / license it as an asset.

Innovation is about turning those inventions and ideas into commercial reality, an IP strategy is about making business sense of the innovation.