IP Strategies for Green Innovations - An Analysis of European Inventor Awards

To drive sustainability transitions on a global scale for a carbon neutral future, green innovations are needed. In this study, we are keen to understand the role of intellectual property (IP) and particularly, its usage by firms innovating for a sustainable future. Unfortunately, little is known about how IP impacts sustainability transitions. To contribute to a better understanding, we chose to investigate IP usage by award - winning green innovators. We study the winners of the European Inventor Award, a highly prestigious international prize, awarded annually by the European Patent Office since 2006. Among all 210 awardees, we identified 52 winners that we classified as green innovators. Our analysis shows that closed and semi-open IP, particularly non-exclusive licensing, are the preferred IP strategies for green innovations. The IP strategy preferences seem to vary across technology domains. These findings are discussed along with their implications

Identifying Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A scenario analysis and conceptual extrapolation of innovation ecosystem dynamics using a visual mapping approach

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed firms, organisations and their respective supply chains which are directly involved in the manufacturing of products that are critical to alleviating the effects of the health crisis, collectively referred to as the Crisis-Critical Sector,to unprecedented challenges. Firms from other sectors, such as automotive, luxury and home appliances, have rushed into the Crisis-Critical Sector in order to support the effort to upscale incumbent manufacturing capacities, thereby introducing Intellectual Property (IP)related dynamics and challenges. We apply an innovation ecosystem perspective on the Crisis-Critical Sector and adopt a novel visual mapping approach to identify IP associated challenges and IP specific dynamic developments during and potentially beyond the crisis.In this paper, we add methodologically by devising and testing a visual approach to capturing IP related dynamics in evolving innovation ecosystems and contribute to literature on IP management in the open innovation context by proposing paraground IP as a novel IP type.Finally, we also deduce managerial implications for IP management practitioners at both incumbent firms and new entrants for navigating innovation ecosystems subject to crisis-induced dynamic shifts

Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property: Findings from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Crisis, pandemic, intellectual property, licensing, patent pledge, compulsory licensing, incumbents, new entrants, COVID-19Within national and international innovation systems a pandemic calls for large-scale action by many actors across sectors, to mobilise resources, developing and manufacturing Crisis-Critical Products (CC-Products) efficiently and in the huge quantities needed. Nowadays, this also includes digital innovations from complex epidemiological models, AI, to open data platforms for prevention, diagnostic and treatment. Amongst the many challenges during a pandemic, innovation and manufacturing stakeholders find themselves engaged in new relationships, and are likely to face intellectual property (IP) related challenges. This paper adopts an IP perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic to identify pandemic related IP considerations and IP challenges. The focus is on challenges related to research, development and urgent upscaling of capacity to manufacture CC-Products in the huge volumes suddenly in demand. Its purpose is to provide a structure for steering clear of IP challenges to avoid delays in fighting a pandemic. We identify 4 stakeholder groups concerned with IP challenges: (i) governments, (ii) organisations owning existing Crisis-Critical IP, described as incumbents in Crisis-Critical Sectors (CC-Sectors), (iii) manufacturing firms from other sectors normally not producing CC-Products suddenly rushing into CC-Sectors to support the manufacturing of CC-Products (new entrants), and (iv) voluntary grassroot initiatives that are formed during a pandemic. This paper discusses IP challenges related to the development and manufacturing of technologies and products for (i) prevention (of spread), (ii) diagnosis of infected patients and (iii) the development of treatments. We offer an initial discussion of potential response measures to reduce IP associated risks among industrial stakeholders during a pandemic

Enabling the Circular Economy: An Exploratory Study on IP Challenges in Innovation Ecosystems

This exploratory study provides an overview of circular economy related intellectual property (CEIP) challenges that actors in circular economy innovation ecosystems (CEIEs) face. Therefore, findings from a literature review are combined with empirical evidence from semi-structured interviews with different actors in CEIEs, including original equipment manufacturers as well as end-of-life solution providers of different company sizes and manufacturing industries. The key contributions of this paper to the literature are: (i) a preliminary framework to study IP challenges in CEIEs, (ii) the CEIP challenges framework which extends findings from the literature by categorising CEIP challenges mentioned in the conducted interviews and (iii) a visual representation of CEIP challenges in the aerospace industry

Integrating intellectual property and sustainable business models: The SBM-IP canvas

Companies attempt to address global sustainability challenges through innovating products, services, and business models. This paper focuses on sustainable business model (SBM) innovations as a way to systemically transform businesses towards sustainability. It has been widely recognized that strategic approaches to using intellectual property (IP) need to be aligned with business model innovation for commercial success. Here we suggest that IP, aligned with SBMs, can also be used to create not only commercial, but also societal and environmental impact. Knowledge about how to best align IP with SBMs to drive sustainability transitions remains limited. We address this gap by developing an SBM-IP canvas that integrates IP considerations into each of the SBM canvas building blocks. We do this by employing relevant theoretical concepts from three literature streams, namely the business model (including SBM), IP, and innovation literature. We use case examples to illustrate different IP considerations that are relevant for the SBM-IP building blocks. These examples show that different IP types (e.g., patents, trademarks) and ways of using them (e.g., more or less restrictive licensing) are applied by companies in relation to the different building blocks. While covering new theoretical ground, the proposed SBM-IP canvas can help decision makers understand how they can use different IP types strategically to propose, create, deliver, and capture sustainable value for society, environment, and the business.</jats:p

Integrating Intellectual Property and Sustainable Business Models: The SBM-IP Canvas

Companies attempt to address global sustainability challenges through innovating products, services, and business models. This paper focuses on sustainable business model (SBM) innovations as a way to systemically transform businesses towards sustainability. It has been widely recognized that strategic approaches to using intellectual property (IP) need to be aligned with business model innovation for commercial success. Here we suggest that IP, aligned with SBMs, can also be used to create not only commercial, but also societal and environmental impact. Knowledge about how to best align IP with SBMs to drive sustainability transitions remains limited. We address this gap by developing an SBM-IP canvas that integrates IP considerations into each of the SBM canvas building blocks. We do this by employing relevant theoretical concepts from three literature streams, namely the business model (including SBM), IP, and innovation literature. We use case examples to illustrate different IP considerations that are relevant for the SBM-IP building blocks. These examples show that different IP types (e.g., patents, trademarks) and ways of using them (e.g., more or less restrictive licensing) are applied by companies in relation to the different building blocks. While covering new theoretical ground, the proposed SBM-IP canvas can help decision makers understand how they can use different IP types strategically to propose, create, deliver, and capture sustainable value for society, environment, and the business

Exploring the interplay between intellectual property models and sustainability transitions: a multi-level analysis

Research on international technology transfer and partnership agreements provides a comprehensive understanding of country-level impacts of intellectual property (IP) rights on sustainability transitions. However, firm-level studies on how firms use and share their IP to support sustainability practices remains limited. The paper disentangles the relationship between firm-level IP models and sustainability practices drawing from a cross-case analysis of 28 firms offering sustainable innovations across four sectors. Analysis of firms’ year-wise data collected from 854 documents (typically 1996-2021) and 58 in-depth interviews exploring linkage between IP models and sustainability practices of firms engaged in sustainable innovation provide six key findings (1) emphasis on safeguarding registered and unregistered IP assets among firms with sustainable innovations (2) widespread adoption of selectively open inbound IP models coupled with diverse IP sharing mechanisms (3) a preference for collaborative (joint) IP ownership among internally driven firms, contrasting with a tendency for exclusive in-licensing among those reacting to external pressures (4) a divergence in outbound IP models, with internally motivated firms favouring selectively open approaches and externally driven firms favoring closed IP models; (5) the adoption of fully open outbound IP models democratize sustainable innovation diffusion; (6) leveraging broadly open outbound IP models alongside closed or selectively open models balances widespread use with access control and achieves significant social sustainability. A framework is hence developed to guide technology-sharing policies and procedures. Thereby, the paper creates a platform for prescribing sustainable IP incentives for encouraging firms to share IP for wider diffusion of sustainable innovations

Integrating intellectual property and sustainable business models : The SBM-IP canvas

Companies attempt to address global sustainability challenges through innovating products, services, and business models. This paper focuses on sustainable business model (SBM) innovations as a way to systemically transform businesses towards sustainability. It has been widely recognized that strategic approaches to using intellectual property (IP) need to be aligned with business model innovation for commercial success. Here we suggest that IP, aligned with SBMs, can also be used to create not only commercial, but also societal and environmental impact. Knowledge about how to best align IP with SBMs to drive sustainability transitions remains limited. We address this gap by developing an SBM-IP canvas that integrates IP considerations into each of the SBM canvas building blocks. We do this by employing relevant theoretical concepts from three literature streams, namely the business model (including SBM), IP, and innovation literature. We use case examples to illustrate different IP considerations that are relevant for the SBM-IP building blocks. These examples show that different IP types (e.g., patents, trademarks) and ways of using them (e.g., more or less restrictive licensing) are applied by companies in relation to the different building blocks. While covering new theoretical ground, the proposed SBM-IP canvas can help decision makers understand how they can use different IP types strategically to propose, create, deliver, and capture sustainable value for society, environment, and the business