A Comprehensive Classification of Business Activities in the Market of Intellectual Property Rights-related Services

Technology and intellectual property markets have witnessed great developments in the last few decades. Due to intellectual property rights gaining more importance and technology companies opening up their innovation processes, a wide range of intellectual property rights related services have emerged in the last two decades. The goal of this research is to develop a comprehensive classification system of intellectual property rights related services (IPSC). The classification is created by applying an ontology engineering process. The IPSC consists of 72 various IPR services divided into six main categories (100 Legal Service; 200 IP Consulting; 300 Matchmaking and Trading; 400 IP Portfolio Processing; 500 IPR-related Financial Service; 600 IPR-related Communication Service). The implications of the thesis are directed to policy makers, technology transfer managers, C-level executives and innovation researchers. The IPSC enables practitioners and researchers to organize industry data that can be thereafter analyzed for better strategy and policy making. In addition, this contributes towards organizing a more transparent and single intellectual property market.:Acknowledgements I Abstract II Contents IV List of Figures VI List of Tables VII 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Introduction to Technology Markets 1 1.2. Explanation of Key Concepts 5 1.3. Research Questions and Goals 9 1.4. Readers Guide 13 2. Literature Review 15 2.1. Intellectual Property Markets State of the Art Review 15 2.2. Ontology Engineering State of the Art Review 22 3. Methodology 26 3.1. Methontology 26 3.2. Planning the IPSC 29 3.3. Specification 30 3.4. Conceptualization 31 3.5. Formalization 32 3.6. Integration 32 3.7. Evaluation 33 3.8. Documentation 33 3.9. Realization and Maintenance 33 4. Data description and collection framework 34 5. Applying Methontology 46 5.1. Knowledge Acquisition and Planning the IPSC 46 5.2. Specification 46 5.3. Conceptualization 47 5.4. Formalization 54 100 Legal Service 56 200 IP Consulting 60 300 Matchmaking and Trading 65 400 IP Portfolio Processing 72 500 IPR-related Financial Service 76 600 IPR-related Communication Service 81 5.5. Integration 86 5.6. Evaluation 95 5.7. Documentation 104 5.8. Realization and Maintenance of the IPSC 106 6. Interview Results and Further Discussions 108 6.1. Implications for Industry 108 6.2. Contributions of the IPSC 110 6.3. Limitations of the IPSC and Future Work 112 7. Conclusions 116 References 120 List of experts interviewed and the date of interview 129 Appendices 13

A Model for Prejudiced Learning in Noisy Environments

Based on the heuristics that maintaining presumptions can be beneficial in uncertain environments, we propose a set of basic axioms for learning systems to incorporate the concept of prejudice. The simplest, memoryless model of a deterministic learning rule obeying the axioms is constructed, and shown to be equivalent to the logistic map. The system's performance is analysed in an environment in which it is subject to external randomness, weighing learning defectiveness against stability gained. The corresponding random dynamical system with inhomogeneous, additive noise is studied, and shown to exhibit the phenomena of noise induced stability and stochastic bifurcations. The overall results allow for the interpretation that prejudice in uncertain environments entails a considerable portion of stubbornness as a secondary phenomenon.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures; reduced graphics to slash size, full version on Author's homepage. Minor revisions in text and references, identical to version to be published in Applied Mathematics and Computatio

Investment promotion in Egypt: Institutional analysis of the general authority for investment and free zones

The objective of this research is to critically examine the potential of Egypt’s central Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and therefore contribute in boosting the country’s economic development. In quest of achieving this objective, the research applies a qualitative methodological approach of a single case study analysis, where it investigates several legislative and institutional elements to understand the extent to which the structure of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) enables it to perform its role as the national agency responsible for investment promotion. The analysis explains various aspects that define the effectiveness of GAFI’s structure, such as the authority level, tools, degree of political autonomy, and the different promotional functions performed. The detailed scrutiny of different organizational and functional elements reveals that the overall structure of GAFI does not contribute to its likelihood of being an effective agency, and therefore exposes its limited role in promoting and facilitating private investments. The findings explain how GAFI’s legal status accounts for weakening its structure and further articulate how the Authority lags behind in performing the main promotional functions of image building, investment generation, investor servicing and facilitation, and policy advocacy; all of which that influence Egypt’s ability to attract foreign investment, enhance local economy and guarantee better linkages to global economy. Thus, the research offers some recommendations to help policy makers adopt better mechanisms that could enhance the performance of GAFI, such as, ensuring the separation between GAFI’s role as a regulator and executor on one side, and its role as promoter and facilitator on the other side

Environmental Politics and the Human Being: A New Interdisciplinary Perspective on Motivational Processes and Sustainable Change Behaviour

Never before has the world been globalized to such an extent, which results in a rapid exploitation of global commons and natural resources and has cross-border effects on biological diversity and climate change. As a consequence, there is a new urgency in making global cooperation in environmental politics work. Although there is a broad consensus that systemic change is needed, progress towards the latter - first, through corresponding global agreements and, second, through effective implementation of those policies at home - seems to lag behind expectations. How can these gaps be explained? And how can new scientific insights help to make environmental politics more effective? Notwithstanding the importance of non-behavioural factors as explanations from the 'outside', the author argues that explanations also have to focus on the 'inside', i.e. individual motivation. The key interest is to better understand the motivational process of individuals who are willing to undergo sustainable change behaviour and to conceptualize the results for further research. This turns human behaviour into an important risk factor in global cooperation and cognition into its relevant feature. This work is on conceptualization with a qualitative methodology and is structured as follows: In order to better grasp the meaning of 'poor' systemic change through environmental politics, the introductory part describes global cooperation as a system and identifies three cognitive blindspots, which need further analysis. As a corresponding literature review proves rich in insights but is too implicit for the further analysis, the author provides her own scheme through which the motivational process is sequenced and linked to the system around the individual. This allows new perspectives on how to discuss change behaviour in globally initiated knowledge production, learning and trial and error adaptations. The conclusions consider what the results obtained so far imply for further research on environmental politics

Online Onboarding: Corporate Governance Training In The COVID-19 Era

Onboarding new directors is critical in the best of circumstances. What should organizations do when training new board members must be completed online? COVID-19 has forced both ordinary and extraordinary business functions to be conducted primarily online, and online onboarding may be necessary or preferred in a number of business contexts. This Article first reviews the best practices in director onboarding and explains the functional goals of those practices. It then explains how to leverage the power of virtual data rooms and virtual conference software to successfully onboard new corporate directors with virtual meetings. These strategies apply to both for-profit and non-profit boards and can be employed to enhance any online meeting or conference where the goals include informing and engaging participants while encouraging them to socialize

Online Onboarding Corporate Governance Training In The COVID-19

[Excerpt] Director onboarding is the process by which an organization facilitates a new director stepping into the role. It is a means by which an incoming director becomes familiar with their new surroundings, the organization, their fellow board members, and other organization leaders. As such, it is an inherently personal experience that has always necessitated face-to-face interaction, whether it takes place in the boardroom and adjacent offices, company retreats, or happy hours. Until 2020, tried-and-true onboarding methods functioned effectively, and there was no reason to reimagine the onboarding process as a potentially virtual procedure. Unfortunately, the novel coronavirus brought about unprecedented and confusing circumstances, and organizations worldwide were forced to shift their entire business platforms online with little or no time to prepare

Applications of agent architectures to decision support in distributed simulation and training systems

This work develops the approach and presents the results of a new model for applying intelligent agents to complex distributed interactive simulation for command and control. In the framework of tactical command, control communications, computers and intelligence (C4I), software agents provide a novel approach for efficient decision support and distributed interactive mission training. An agent-based architecture for decision support is designed, implemented and is applied in a distributed interactive simulation to significantly enhance the command and control training during simulated exercises. The architecture is based on monitoring, evaluation, and advice agents, which cooperate to provide alternatives to the dec ision-maker in a time and resource constrained environment. The architecture is implemented and tested within the context of an AWACS Weapons Director trainer tool. The foundation of the work required a wide range of preliminary research topics to be covered, including real-time systems, resource allocation, agent-based computing, decision support systems, and distributed interactive simulations. The major contribution of our work is the construction of a multi-agent architecture and its application to an operational decision support system for command and control interactive simulation. The architectural design for the multi-agent system was drafted in the first stage of the work. In the next stage rules of engagement, objective and cost functions were determined in the AWACS (Airforce command and control) decision support domain. Finally, the multi-agent architecture was implemented and evaluated inside a distributed interactive simulation test-bed for AWACS Vv\u27Ds. The evaluation process combined individual and team use of the decision support system to improve the performance results of WD trainees. The decision support system is designed and implemented a distributed architecture for performance-oriented management of software agents. The approach provides new agent interaction protocols and utilizes agent performance monitoring and remote synchronization mechanisms. This multi-agent architecture enables direct and indirect agent communication as well as dynamic hierarchical agent coordination. Inter-agent communications use predefined interfaces, protocols, and open channels with specified ontology and semantics. Services can be requested and responses with results received over such communication modes. Both traditional (functional) parameters and nonfunctional (e.g. QoS, deadline, etc.) requirements and captured in service requests

The Quadruple Helix as an approach to strengthen Bahrain’s innovation agenda: the financial services sector ecosystem

Bahrain has adopted a number of government action plans and policies to support innovation, and a number of collaborative frameworks in support of wider community inclusion. The Quadruple Helix innovation model was introduced as a way to strengthen Bahrain’s innovation ecosystem, but much remains unknown about how this model can be effectively applied in practice. This research adopts an ‘exploratory’ and ‘explanatory’ approach to investigate how the fourth helix – public/civil society – is perceived and integrated into existing trilateral innovative networks between academia, regulator and industry, as well as the implications of such integration. Further, this study investigates how gaps in relation to the insufficient capacity to incorporate the fourth helix, and the tensions that arise from their incorporation, are managed by innovation intermediaries. In keeping with the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews with key participants and document analysis were selected as data collection tools to explore participants’ perceptions of their collaboration and diverse experiences. The ‘Clarkeian version’ of grounded theory was adopted as an analytical approach based on its three mapping strategies: ‘situational maps’; ‘social world/arenas maps’; and ‘positional maps’. Situational analysis was chosen to investigate the ‘patterns of collective commitment’ and what discourses are evoked in order to co-design and co-develop innovative financial solutions. Situation analysis further helped uncover the complexity of collaboration, to develop a deeper interpretation and analysis of the power relations involved, and help elucidate marginalised perspectives in relation to the inquiry, by revealing actors who had lost part of their capacity to perform and shape action. The data analysis revealed three key theoretical constructs, which were then replicated in the integrative framework. The framework aggregated the findings representing first the gaps identified in relation to the insufficient capabilities of academia, regulator, and industry to involve public/civil society members in collaborative and trans-disciplinary innovation processes. Second, the extension of the trilateral interactions to incorporate other actors via the participation of public/civil society resulted in new opportunities as well as new tensions that transcended the innovation process. These involved tensions associated with conflicting interests, incongruent collaboration motives, divergent perceptions of collaborative value, and power dynamics and asymmetries. Interestingly, some of these tensions were paradoxical in nature, as they exposed conflicting but interdependent poles that reproduced themselves, and thus persisted over time. Finally, intermediary roles were investigated, and the analysis evolved into exploring who the intermediaries were, what roles they played, what challenges they faced, and how these challenges were managed. Although the findings emphasised the important role that innovation intermediaries played in a Quadruple Helix configuration, in relation to facilitating innovation processes they also revealed that intermediaries may create miscommunication, impede matchmaking between the different Quadruple Helix actors, and increase power imbalances among them. This thesis adds to the growing body of literature on the Quadruple Helix model in two ways. First, it uncovers the gaps and tensions that underpin interactions in the helices and in correspondence to the collaborative and co-creational activities in the FinTech ecosystem by showing their interrelations. This study explores the nature of these gaps and tensions, the reasons why they arise, and the strategies employed by the innovation intermediaries to address them. Secondly, this study extends previous research which found that tensions were both inherited and unavoidable in helix contexts by demonstrating that, beyond that, tensions are constitutive of the Quadruple Helix environment and shape its interactions. This thesis also adds to the body of knowledge on innovation intermediaries by suggesting that although intermediaries were proposed as a means to bridge gaps and tensions, however, in many instances, they merely exacerbated them. Finally, in terms of practical implications, a number of recommendations are made on how to uncover the synergistic potential of tensions in order to facilitate collaboration and knowledge transfer among the Quadruple Helix’s key actors