Great Expectations

The cost to create, identify, secure, and generate a measurable return on innovation has skyrocketed. Yet the need to have identifiable IP rights is greater than ever.

More people are affected by the deployment of new ideas. There is no dispute that innovation is an integral part of a global knowledge economy.

What is less certain, however, is the extent to which IP rights affect various key audiences, such as shareholders.

Until recently shareholders have generally been kept in the dark about IP. Do they a right to be informed about, for example, patent performance? Some enlightened stakeholders think so. With more people looking for greater return on innovation the needs of and respect for key IP audiences are difficult to ignore.

“Managing expectations is an important element in establishing patent performance. Who are IP stakeholders and why do businesses need to care about what they think?”

Great Expectations is my next IAM “Intangible Investor” column. It will be published in the May-June issue (#41). In it I provide a brief perspective on who are IP stakeholders and why they count more today than in the past.  The column should be out in a couple of weeks.

Illustration: Dover Thrift Editions