How a flexible and creative approach to intellectual property can help an organization
accomplish goals ranging from building market share to expanding an industry.Most managers
leave intellectual property issues to the legal department unaware that an organization's
intellectual property can help accomplish a range of management goals from accessing new
markets to improving existing products to generating new revenue streams. In this book
intellectual property expert and Harvard Law School professor John Palfrey offers a short
briefing on intellectual property strategy for corporate managers and nonprofit administrators.
Palfrey argues for strategies that go beyond the traditional highly restrictive sword and
shield approach suggesting that flexibility and creativity are essential to a profitable
long-term intellectual property strategy especially in an era of changing attitudes about
media.Intellectual property writes Palfrey should be considered a key strategic asset class.
Almost every organization has an intellectual property portfolio of some value and therefore
the need for an intellectual property strategy. A brand for example is an important form of
intellectual property as is any information managed and produced by an organization. Palfrey
identifies the essential areas of intellectual property patent copyright trademark and trade
secret and describes strategic approaches to each in a variety of organizational contexts
based on four basic steps.The most innovative organizations employ multiple intellectual
property approaches depending on the situation asking hard context-specific questions. By
doing so they achieve both short- and long-term benefits while positioning themselves for
success in the global information economy.
