Technology market intermediaries to facilitate external technology exploitation: The case of IP auctions

Recently the phenomena of external technology exploitation (ETE) has started to attract attention from scholars, businesses and politicians likewise alongside with a growth of the markets for technology. However, the markets for technology are still characterized by inhibiting obstacles that lead to high transaction costs, thus prohibit efficient transactions and result in market failure. Although, on the one hand the presence of obstacles lead to high transaction costs, the large market potential on the other hand provides incentives for technology market intermediaries (TMI) to develop new exploitation models to facilitate ETE transactions by reducing transaction costs. Throughout this paper we address the general research question of whether and how new exploitation models can actually facilitate ETE. To address this question, in a first step we generate insights into TMIs acting on the markets for technology and derived a conceptual basis for a further understanding of TMIs. Having carried out a detailed review of the literature, we develop a theory based typology for six TMI archetypes. Throughout this exercise we gain insights into the variety of different functions TMIs have on the markets for technology and various new ways how TMIs try to facilitate ETE transactions. Throughout the second part of this paper, we focus on IP auctions as one particular business model of the archetype “IP Broker”. We investigate this “young” business model presenting first insights into two qualitative studies. In a first step we derive a generic IP auction process based on a qualitative, empirical analysis of IP auction processes. We then translate these results into a theory based process view and derive a generic IP auction process as a specific type of an ETE process. Having thus generated a close understanding of the transaction process, we presented results from four cases of successful transactions, i.e. where patents were sold for particular high prices from two SMEs and two MNCs. The case studies are analyzed according to four main aspects including characteristics of the companies that exploited patented technologies (including motives and selection processes), the patented technology as such, the organization of the transaction and the companies’ perceptions regarding the success of the transactions. --

A typology of technology market intermediaries

Technology Market Intermediaries (TMI) are currently emerging on the markets for technologies attempting to realize business opportunities and facilitate the technology and IP transactions supporting firms and other markets actors (e.g. universities). They aim to support open innovation, respectively facilitate more economically technology and particularly IP transactions. However, our understanding of TMIs and their roles needs to be considered incomplete. In this paper I provide evidence on the growing number of TMIs and derived a conceptual basis for a further understanding of TMIs. The inherent difficulties of intellectual property monetization present a challenge for technology based enterprises and business opportunities for IP firms. Following a literature review, I develop a typology for TMIs. Having carried out a review of the literature I compiled a mix of primary and secondary data on about 70 TMIs. Applying the 'nine business model building blocks' from Osterwalder (2004) I identify 12 different TMI types which I then consolidate into six TMI archetypes using the framework for 'business models archetypes' of Herman and Malone (2003). --typology,type,Technology Market Intermediaries

Intermediaries and Innovation: Why they emerge and how they facilitate IP transactions on the markets for technology

With this paper we aim to contribute to the discussion about the difficulties that occur when trading technical knowledge and particularly patents. Currently one can observe that markets for technology have been sizable growing, transaction obstacles are still immanent and technology market intermediaries (TMI) emerge that develop new models aiming to facilitate Intellectual Property (IP) transactions. Why TMIs emerge and how they attempt to facilitate IP transactions however is not yet sufficiently understood. We propose theoretical explanations for these two questions building primarily on the contributions of Stigler (1951) and Williamson (1979). We argue that the growing markets for technologies on the one hand and immanent transaction obstacles on the other hand lead to further division of labor and thus foster the emergence of TMIs. Following Williamson (1979) we propose that the new transaction models developed by TMIs attempt to implement more standardized governance structures in order to diminish transaction costs. However it remains to be seen which of the newly developed models (or those to come) will survive and actually deliver more economic transactions. --

What is green Innovation? A quantitative literature review

The importance of green innovation management is growing in practice and academia likewise. To our knowledge, a recent and comprehensive literature review is lacking. In this paper we contribute to a clarification of the concept green innovation and provide an overview of the existing body of literature in the field of green innovations identifying the most active scholars, institutions and relevant publications. We find that the three different notions of green, eco/ecological and environmental innovation are used largely synonymously while the notion of sustainable innovation broadens the concept and includes a social dimension. We find further that the most active scholars are situated in Europe (i.e. Netherlands, Italy and Germany) and identified three innovation management journals leading the field. --Innovation management,green innovations,eco innovations,environmental innovations,sustainable innovations,literature review

Towards advanced Intellectual property management - Events and stages during the development. Evidence from the biotech sector

During recent years the management of Intellectual Property (IP) underwent major changes. IP management systems became increasingly complex nowadays actively handling an integrated mix of intellectual assets rather than just administrating patents or trademarks as single, independently treated assets. Our paper describes and analyses the historic development of IP management in German and Swedish Dedicated Biotechnology Firms (DBFs) with our main focus on the following two issues: (1) Which events trigger the development towards an advanced IP management? (2) Can distinctive stages be identified in the development of IP management systems and if yes, how are they characterised? Our study draws primarily on 12 personal interviews with leading managers from six larger German and Swedish DBFs with rich experience in IP management that were founded between 1984 and 1997. During our study we found that shifts towards an advanced IP management were triggered by single crucial events (e.g. litigation) or an accumulated sum of incremental events, of either internal or external nature. Up to four different stages of IP management were found throughout the development of the case companies, while six criteria were identified that can be applied to characterize an IP management stage. --Intellectual Property Management,Dedicated Biotechnology Firm,Germany,Sweden

Firms' transition towards green product service system innovators

Within this paper we explore transition paths firms can take to become product service system (PSS) innovators. Applying the dynamic capability approach we study how three firms have developed PSS innovations in the mobility sector (Car2Go by Daimler AG, Connect by Hertz by The Hertz Corporation, Better Place). We explore the different paths the firms have taken originating from different capability sets. Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with project managers of successful PSS innovations we propose a framework that incorporates three major transition paths. We derive propositions for necessary capability sets for different firm types, the sequence of necessary capability sets along the innovation process and discuss different types of environmental gains realized through PSS. --Innovation management,product service system,transition path,sustainability

The emergence of care robotics: A publication and patent analysis

--

The state-of-the-art on Intellectual Property Analytics (IPA): A literature review on artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning methods for analysing intellectual property (IP) data

Big data is increasingly available in all areas of manufacturing and operations, which presents an opportunity for better decision making and discovery of the next generation of innovative technologies. Recently, there have been substantial developments in the field of patent analytics, which describes the science of analysing large amounts of patent information to discover trends. We define Intellectual Property Analytics (IPA) as the data science of analysing large amount of IP information, to discover relationships, trends and patterns for decision making. In this paper, we contribute to the ongoing discussion on the use of intellectual property analytics methods, i.e artificial intelligence methods, machine learning and deep learning approaches, to analyse intellectual property data. This literature review follows a narrative approach with search strategy, where we present the state-of-the-art in intellectual property analytics by reviewing 57 recent articles. The bibliographic information of the articles are analysed, followed by a discussion of the articles divided in four main categories: knowledge management, technology management, economic value, and extraction and effective management of information. We hope research scholars and industrial users, may find this review helpful when searching for the latest research efforts pertaining to intellectual property analytics.The authors would like to acknowledge support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Motives for Patent Pledges: A Qualitative Study

Patent Pledges are initiatives of patent owners in which they announce the free or reasonable availability of active patents. Many firms struggle to understand the rationales behind these strategies, making it difficult to decide whether or not to trust them. After all, respective patent owners could also let the patents lapse to make them available. So, what do patent owners hope to achieve through these initiatives? Existing literature suggests motives for patent pledges, but lacks academic rigor and empirical evidence. To further our understanding of patent pledges, we conducted 30 expert interviews, including people directly involved in the decision to initiate and to execute patent pledges. As a complementary data source, we qualitatively analysed 50 public patent pledge statements with respect to their underlying motives. We found 13 distinct motives belonging to three general categories, the primary motive being ‘Driving Technology Diffusion’. We contribute to existing knowledge by providing novel insights into the phenomenon of patent pledges and empirical evidence to what the literature has suggested. We argue that all motives of free patent pledges link to the overarching goal of fostering technology diffusion