, 2020: Closed, Semi-Open, or Fully-Open? Towards an Intellectual Property Strategy Typology. Proceedings, 2020.
The body of literature addressing different types of intellectual property (IP) strategies is large but fragmented. This paper develops an IP strategy typology from a sharing perspective and applies across formal and informal IP assets. The typology is based on four dimensions: (i) degree of openness, (ii) IP ownership rights concentration, (iii) access and (iv) commercial usage rights. We follow a multi-dimensional, theoretical approach integrating the literature on IP management, (open) innovation, licensing, physical property rights theory and economic goods. Along the degree of openness, the proposed typology distinguishes four IP strategy types with sub-types existing for each of them: private IP, club IP, common IP, and public IP strategies. The proposed types are described using case examples. We further discuss that actors not necessarily adopt one, but multiple IP strategies either sequentially adjusting their strategy over time along lifecycles (‘evolutionary’ model) or employ multiple IP strategies in parallel at the same time, e.g. with different actors in their ecosystem (‘co-existence’ model). An IP typology of this kind contributes towards the ontology and theory of the firm-level IP literature. It thus provides a structured framework to aid future studies on the role of IP strategies for business, economic and societal growth.”
Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.22070abstract