Intellectual Property Is a Management Tool that Needs to Be Used Proactively – Conley
29 May 2007By Bashar Al Ashhab
AMMAN - “It is not enough to understand the laws of Intellectual Property (IP), it must be actively used as a management tool to direct businesses into the future,” Dr. James G. Conley, a faculty contributor in the Kellogg Center for Research in Technology and Innovation and serves as a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Design Engineering and Application (NU IDEA) in the United States, told ag-IP-news Agency.
Professor Conley was the key speaker at the business meeting held by the Licensing Executives Society-Arab Countries (LES-AC) in cooperation with Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) May 28, 2007 at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh College of Business/German-Jordanian University (TAGCB/GJU).
“One of the results for proactively using IP systems is to bring out the talented and bright individuals, groups and industries in the Middle East,” he added.
Ideas and innovations are a source of competitive advantage when they are protected from imitation. The securest forms of ideas and innovation are the monopoly rights vested in the Intellectual Properties.
The granting of exclusive property rights for innovations and creations by most governments in the industrialized world substantially increases the economic value behind the corresponding ideas; Conley explained during discussion his paper entitled "Articulating the Value of Intellectual Property, an Integrated Approach for Managers".
“Portfolio Management is not only for special products or innovation; it is for every innovation and what you can do with it in terms of integrating management function regimes of IP into the innovation that leads to competitive advantage."
Conley stressed that Ideas and innovation derive economic value from two concepts of securitization:
The first concept of securitization is the actual granting of exclusive rights to the inventors or authors of innovations and creations via the formation of intellectual property rights. These rights allow owners to exclude others from profiting by entering the innovation or idea space protected by the subject of intellectual property. Simply put, a piece of intellectual property such as a method patent impedes competitors from using the same method to compete in the same market space. Hence the granting of the exclusionary right is quite valuable.
The second concept of securitization is the transformation of an innovation or creation from an illiquid idea to a more liquid security. Again, the granting of intellectual property rights achieves this goal. The rights vested in the intellectual property allow for the holder or assignee of the innovation or creation the ability to sell or license that property. This embedded option to sell or license the property also has significant economic value."
"As the product ages the value of the limited life intellectual property vehicle typically decreases unless the value is actively transferred to a longer life trademark. If this transference is properly managed, the value associated with that idea could be extended to the life of the trademark. Most would agree that the infinite right to exclude others from using your mark translates into a VERY long time and certainly a sustainable form of competitive advantage," Conley said.
He further shed light on a competitive advantage represented specifically by AstraZeneca pharmaceutical's business case; the advantage in this case is represented by the company's purple color used as a medication for gastrointestinal reflux disease (GIRD). AstraZeneca's patented and very profitable Prilosec medication for GIRD ended its patent protection term in April 2002.
"The Prilosec medication is uniquely purple in color. Much of AstraZeneca’s advertising and public domain literature features Prilosec in its purple packaging or a trade dress protected "purple pill". It is interesting to note that AstraZeneca's next generation of GIRD which is called Nexium, covered by a new patent, will also be packaged as a purple pill and hence build upon all of the consumer awareness already captured by the Prilosec purple color," Conley concluded.
Meanwhile, AGIP Clients' Relations Manager Suha Al Mahsiri presented a paper entitled "IP Portfolio Management".
“Integrating intellectual assets into the business plan will on the long run increase profit margins and furthermore increase the overall well-being of the business," she said.
"Many businesses today are enjoying more profits after implementing IP tool in the assets of their firms,” Al Mahsiri added.
The attendants at the venue represented the private and public sectors in Jordan in addition to LES-AC members.
Follow us
