Main purposes of this module
- to establish a link between the innovation activity of a company and how the patent system can provide useful inputs for future innovation
- to motivate participants to look deeper into specific innovation processes and tools as presented in later modules
Topics covered in this module:
- What is innovation? Concept of ideality
- Drivers and environments encouraging innovation
- Why innovation fails
- The role of management
More information
This module starts with some statistics on the economic damage caused by illegal counterfeiting and piracy, illustrating one example of the economic motivation for IP rights and their relevance to globalised economies and mass production, when the cost of copying is lower than the cost to invent and to innovate.
It also explains the importance of owning an innovation for successful commercialisation and sets out the links between technology strategy, product/market strategies and IP strategy with the aim of protecting the relevant IP assets to gain ownership of your innovation. It illustrates the two IP exploitation paths: protecting the primary value chain for premium price strategy vs. generating additional income from licensing.
A powerful IP strategy typically uses a mix of codified IP (patents, trade-marks, designs, copyrights etc.) and uncodified IP (know-how about technology, implementation, products etc.) to maximise the protection of the business. Finally, it presents the different stages of maturity of the strategy and the accompanying evolution of the IP management roles.