Books

R. Blackburn, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT IN SMALL FIRMS (2003).

Abstract (from publisher): The study of small business in the information age has become a growing topic for academic research and debate, particularly in the area of intellectual property protection and its management. Based on the findings of a number of research projects, this timely contribution focuses on intellectual property management in small and medium-sized enterprises from both a national and international perspective and addresses this issue in the context of innovation and knowledge management.

Julie L. Davis & Suzanne S. Harrison, Edison in the Boardroom: How Leading Companies Realize Value From Their Intellectual Assets (2001).

Abstract (from publisher): Today's corporations are always on the lookout for exciting new and innovative ideas that can be used to generate revenue. Up until recently, this meant taking these ideas and turning them into products or services, which could then be sold for profit. But today, a unique new concept is revolutionizing the way companies are getting value from ideas. Instead of incorporating them into products or services, today's innovations may be bartered, licensed or sold in the "idea" stage for tremendous amounts of money. For example, IBM currently receives well over $1 billion in revenue every year from licensing its intellectual property, unrelated to the manufacture of a single product. Today more and more companies are adopting this idea of turning their legal departments, where intellectual property is housed, from cost centers into profit centers. Edison in the Boardroom: How Leading Companies Realize Value from Their Intellectual Assets takes an in-depth look at the revolutionary concept of Intellectual Asset management (IAM). IAM is changing the way companies all over the world are doing business.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies: The Role of Law (Megan M. Carpenter ed., 2012).

Abstract (from publisher): The very foundation of the economy is changing. Across the United States, primary and secondary sector industries are no longer as viable as they once were - because the particular businesses are no longer profitable, because the underlying resources are no longer as plentiful or desirable, or because human activity is not essential to various aspects of an industry's operations. As economies evolve from traditional industrial resources, such as mining and manufacturing, to 'new' resources, such as information and content, innovation and entrepreneurship are key. Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies examines the role of law in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in communities whose economies are in transition. It contains a collection of works from different perspectives and tackles tough questions regarding policy and practice, including how support for entrepreneurship can be translated into policy. Additionally, this collection addresses more concrete questions of practical efficacy, including measures of how successful or unsuccessful legal efforts to incentivize entrepreneurship may be, through intellectual property law and otherwise, and what might define success to begin with. 

Ann B. Graham & Vincent G. Pizzo, A Question of Balance: Case Studies in Strategic Knowledge Managementin The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital (David A. Klein ed., 1997).

Abstract (from Amazon Product Description): The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital analyzes the link between the strategic and operational roles of intellectual capital in the organization. This resource can be useful to the growing number of companies pursuing a strategic approach to managing their intellectual capital and harnessing and leveraging their knowledge, experience, and expertise more systematically to attain a competitive advantage. It offers a compilation of articles pertinent to the management of intellectual capital. Included are case studies, frameworks, and tools for developing organizational programs in this emerging enterprise. This text provides an understanding of the importance of intellectual capital and how to manage it.

Adam Jolly, THE INNOVATION HANDBOOK: HOW TO PROFIT FROM YOUR IDEAS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND MARKET KNOWLEDGE (2010).

Product Description (from Amazon):  Unique features, distinctive capabilities and exclusive know-how are the surest way to stay ahead of the market for any length of time. But the way these points of difference are created and commercialized is changing. The difficulty for most organizations is not in generating ideas, but in pursuing the right one at the right speed on the right scale. Alongside flashes of brilliance, innovation depends on combining strategic insight, inspired leadership, suitable funding, adept marketing, motivated teams and appropriate intellectual property in the right business model.

Raymond J Keating, Unleashing Small Business through IP: Protecting Intellectual Property, Driving Entrepreneurship (2013).

Abstract (from publisher): In our entrepreneurial, high-tech, global, knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy of the twenty-first century, it is imperative to establish, protect and enforce intellectual property rights. In fact, no matter what the industry or line of business - from local shops to Internet ventures - intellectual property, or IP, matters. And make no mistake, IP protections, such as patents and copyright, matter most for smaller businesses. This book provides insights on the role of IP in our economy and assorted industries, on the ills of IP theft, and on IP's impact on entrepreneurship and small business ... now and into the future. Karen Kerrigan, President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, observed, "This book serves as an invaluable guide for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and the general public in helping them to grasp the critical role that intellectual property protections play in driving innovation, entrepreneurship, competitiveness, job creation and economic growth."

KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION SYSTEMS: EVIDENCE FROM EUROPE  (Franco Malerba, ed. 2010).

Product Description (from Amazon): This book examines entrepreneurship from three interrelated perspectives. Firstly, it links entrepreneurship to innovation and to the generation, transformation and use of knowledge. Secondly, it inserts entrepreneurship in innovation systems of various types- national, sectoral and local. Thirdly, it views entrepreneurship not as a single event but as a process that evolves in time, from the pre-entry experience, to the entrepreneurial act, to the evolution of the entrepreneur and the new company. With chapters from a range of international contributors, the book answers questions such as; what are the main dimensions of knowledge intensive entrepreneurship? What are the factors affecting its emergence, evolution and performance? How important is knowledge intensive entrepreneurship for European growth and competitiveness? Is the situation of Central and Eastern Europe, engaged in a process of major economic and institutional transformation, similar or different from the one of Western Europe?

Constance Lütolf-Carroll & Antti Pirnes, FROM INNOVATION TO CASH FLOWS: VALUE CREATION BY STRUCTURING HIGH TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCES (2009).

Abstract (from product description at Amazon.com):  This reference provides a guide to the essentials of high-technology entrepreneurship, alliances, and venture finance. It explores the process of high-technology entrepreneurship from the creative inception of an idea to the transformation of that idea into an invention—and eventually into a commercially viable innovation.

Richard Razgaitis, VALUATION & DEALMAKING OF TECHNOLOGY-BASED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: PRINCIPLES, METHODS AND TOOLS (2009).

Abstract (from product description at Amazon.com): Commercializing technology innovation is not a risk-free journey. But as the author explains, by applying reasoned judgment and proven approaches, methods, and tools, entrepreneurs can profitably succeed in risk–based opportunity.

Richard Razgaitis, Valuation and Pricing of Technology-Based Intellectual Property (2003).

Abstract (from Amazon Product Description): To develop or not to develop? To license or not to license? What price will be a true reflection of the product’s value from the buyer’s and seller’s points of view? These are the compelling questions that confront developers of cutting-edge technologies years before those technologies will reach the marketplace. InValuation and Pricing of Technology-Based Intellectual Property, Richard Razgaitis offers complete coverage of the issues, methods, and art of valuing and pricing "early-stage" technologies. Razgaitis draws upon over thirty years of experience in developing technology-based intellectual property to thoroughly examine this volatile process from all angles.


 

Articles

Karen A. Campbell, IP Protection Games: Does Technology Type Matter For Entrepreneurial Behavior? (2011), available athttp://ssrn.com/abstract=1784863.

Abstract: T his paper builds on an analytical tool for studying entrepreneurship in a new classical general equilibrium framework. The entrepreneurial economy model takes the consumer-producer economy model and makes explicit the role of the entrepreneur. This paper uses it to study entrepreneurial behavior when assumptions regarding contract enforcement and intellectual property rights can be violated. An extended form game involving an entrepreneur and a trading partner is presented. 

Results show that different subgame perfect equilibria arise depending on whether the venture idea (innovation) is production specific or a general purpose technology. Furthermore, depending on the type of technology, different mechanisms for intellectual property (IP) protection are desirable, in terms of total social utility. This has implications for the way IP laws are crafted and why (one-size-fits-all) patent laws have come under fire. The results give some foundation for the intuition on both sides of the patent law debates. It makes precise when stronger IP protections may be needed to help entrepreneurs and trading partners out of a prisoner’s type dilemma versus when these laws may not be necessary.

Colleen Chien, Startups and Patent Trolls, 17 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 461 (2014).

Abstract (adapted from author): The impact of Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) on startups is crucial, because startups contribute to job creation and innovation, making them potential targets of patent demands. To assess the impact of trolls on startups, the author analyzed a comprehensive database of patent litigations from 2006 to the present, conducted a non-random survey of 223 tech company startups, 79 of which had received a demand, and interviewed nearly 20 entities with relevant knowledge of startup patent issues. The author finds that although large companies tend to dominate patent headlines, most unique defendants to troll suits are small.

What can be done to decrease the harms of patent assertion and increase the benefits of a robust patent market to small companies and startups? Focusing on this question, the article presents new data suggesting that a number of the reforms put in place over the last year, including by the America Invents Act, are having a positive impact.

Increasing the cost of software patents would limit the number of patents but would also disadvantage startups that patent, relative to large companies and PAEs with large budgets. The distributional impacts of reforms need to be kept in mind, and this article suggests some alternative reforms for the consideration of the courts, Congress, and the market.

Saul Estrin, Julia A. Korosteleva & Tomasz Marek Mickiewicz, Which Institutions Encourage Entrepreneurs to Create Larger Firms? (IZA Discussion Paper No. 5481, 2011), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1765646.

Abstract:  We develop entrepreneurship and institutional theory to explain variation in different types of entrepreneurship across individuals and institutional contexts. Our framework generates hypotheses about the negative impact of higher levels of corruption, weaker property rights and especially intellectual property rights, and a larger state on entrepreneurs who plan to grow faster. We test these hypotheses using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys in 55 countries for 2001-2006, applying a multilevel estimation framework. We confirm our main hypotheses but we find no significant impact from intellectual property rights.

Charles Tait Graves & James A. Diboise, Do Strict Trade Secret and Non-competition Laws Obstruct Innovation? 1 Entrepreneurial Bus. L.J. 323 (2007).

Abstract (from introduction):  This Article examines whether non-competition covenants and overbroad trade secret laws operate to restrict innovation and impede the growth of small, creative businesses - especially those founded by former employees of larger, established companies. We summarize the nascent scholarship around these issues, and pose several questions for future research by legal scholars and economists. We then critically analyze aspects of non-competition, fiduciary duty, and trade secret law - bodies of law which we refer to as “the law of employee mobility.” We conclude that reform in these areas would likely promote innovation, and we invite further discussion around these important but neglected areas of law.

Lars Persson & Joshua S. Gans, Entrepreneurial Commercialization Choices and the Interaction Between IPR and Competition Policy (IFN Working Paper No. 895, 2012), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2048235.

Abstract (from authors): This paper examines the interaction between intellectual property protection and competition policy on the choice of entrepreneurs with respect to commercialization as well as the rate of innovation. The authors find that stronger intellectual property protection makes it more likely that entrepreneurs will commercialize by cooperating with incumbents rather than competing with them. Consequently, they demonstrate that competition policy has a clearer role in promoting a higher rate of innovation in that event. Hence, the authors identify one reason why the strength of the two policies may be complements from the perspective of increasing the rate of entrepreneurial innovation.

Timothy S. Simcoe, Stuart J. Graham & Maryann Feldman, Competing on Standards? Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Platform Technologies, 18(3) J. Econ. & Mgm’t Strategy 775 (2009).

Abstract (from authors): Entrepreneurs often rely on intellectual property (IP) to earn a return on their innovations, and also compatibility standards, which allow them to supply specialized components for a shared technology platform. This paper compares the IP strategies of small entrepreneurs and large incumbents that disclose patents at 13 voluntary standard setting organizations (SSOs). These patents have a relatively high litigation rate. For small private firms, the probability of filing a lawsuit increases after disclosure to the SSO. For large public firms, the filing rate is unchanged. Although forward citations increase after disclosure for all firms, the size of this effect is the same for entrepreneurs and incumbents. These results suggest that standards increase the difference between large and small firms’ incentives to litigate, rather than the relative value of their patents. We conclude that because specialized technology providers cannot seek rents in complementary markets, they defend IP more aggressively once it has been incorporated into an open platform.

Kyle Tondo-Kramer, Increasing Access to Startup Financing through Intellectual Property Securitization, 27 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 613 (2010).

Abstract: This paper discusses how a private company running a single, nationwide database of encumbered intellectual property and intangible assets can ease the burden on creditors and pave the way for more creditors to enter this market. Part two offers a brief overview of how intellectual property securitization works and some of the impediments to using this type of securitization. Part three proposes a possible solution to the problem creditors face regarding the filing of a financing statement when attempting to securitize intellectual property, and provides an in depth analysis as to why the suggestion that a private company runs a single, nationwide database is appropriate. Finally, part four will conclude by arguing that, if implemented properly, the single, nationwide database managed by a private company is the first step towards bringing more creditors into the market and providing startups with the necessary cash to survive.


 

Online Resources

2Market Information, Inc., Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor
http://www.ipmarketingadvisor.com/content/

Kaufmann Foundation, Intellectual Property and Innovative Entrepreneurship: Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship.
http://www.entrepreneurship.org/intellectual-property-and-innovative-entrepreneurship.html