Innovate or Perish: Managing the Enduring Technology Company in the Global Market

The Fusion of Marketing, Technology, and IP in Integrated IP Management

The harvesting and evaluation of “inventions” are often confined to scientists and intellectual property (IP) or patent attorneys, with little marketing participation. This is especially true in large organizations for reasons that are partly philosophical, namely, the predilection that inventing is confined to the technological fields and patent protection can be granted only on technology innovation. However, the reasons are also practical. Business and marketing people conduct different activities at locations and schedules at variance to scientific personnel, and communication among these functions is sporadic. Such a disconnect is accepted practice and not likely to change in the absence of some incentive. A change in culture would occur if management were to be persuaded that valuable and patentable innovation could be extracted from sources beyond the traditional research and development (R&D) setting and that the resulting IP could be enforceable in the future.

Innovative entrepreneurs often are successful when there is a natural fusion or integration of the inventor and market mover in one person or close collaboration within a small group. Entrepreneurs generally work quickly and effectively with IP counsel in protecting their “brainchildren.” As companies grow and become compartmentalized, communication becomes less intimate between the business and technical functions, especially where IP protection ...