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What is an ideal strategy and would you know one if it bit you? Why bother with it anyway? The ideal strategy is a strategy that provides 100% of the desired benefit and 0% drawback. It is a theoretical target given the mathematical reality that 1/0 (where whole benefit = 1, and no drawback = 0) does not exist – all strategies have drawbacks. A key question to ask, when planning IP… Read More
One of the first rules of creating a winning strategy is to see things as they are and not as we believe them to be. Strategy is not forgiving of misinterpretations about the way things are. For example, if everyone believes that Microsoft is inhibiting innovation in an area when in fact the company is fostering innovation, that misinterpretation will not change the reality. To illustrate, open source thrives in the presence… Read More
In the course of 20 years, China has slowly developed to become the fifth largest patent systems in the world – what is next and what is missing for China to become the innovative hub it wants to be? Statistics recently revealed by the EPO show that domestic patent application in China have, in the past 5 years, outpaced the number foreign application. According to EPO statistics in 2009 the foreign patent… Read More
‘Think globally, act locally’ – but do you really mean it? This has been the slogan of many multinationals during the years but still many fail in this respect. The new wave of expansions into China, India and Indonesia give probably the most vivid examples of the need to think locally: understand the culture, find key partners, understand the legal constraints and develop IP and business strategies that work within the given… Read More
In some situations, filing IP very early in the invention cycle can actually do harm and perhaps kill the potential commercial prospects for an invention. Earlier blogs in this series have highlighted speed of action as a way to achieve competitive advantage. Speed to file IP, speed to publish, speed to invent. But to quote a well-known public vehicle information commercial “speed kills”. Put another way, the early bird can arrive too… Read More
Focus on the effect you wish your IP to have, not on the IP itself. On many occasions during IP strategy training courses I have given, I have suggested that patent strategists learn how to play the Chinese game of Go. Go is a well-known game of strategy in the East, just as Chess is in the West. The mindset needed to win the game of Go is similar to the mindset… Read More
Ever made a prediction that was utterly, completely and hopelessly wrong? That’s Claim Chowder. Daring Fireball has the example of Steve Balmer’s April 2007 quote – “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” Ummm…. And yet, has this prediction hurt Steve? Seth Godin posted about this recently – he suggests – do it anyway, have an opinion, defend it, it will make you… Read More
One of the key tenets for any successful business effort is to gain and retain freedom of action. This tenet is aligned with the overall strategic goal of any person to not only succeed, but to succeed on his terms. You do not want your opportunity to advance your business to be limited by others, be it your customers, partners, and especially, competitors. In the IP world, freedom of action has a… Read More
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