This document discusses various intellectual property management strategies for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It begins with an introduction explaining the need for IP strategies to protect innovations from imitation. It then outlines several strategies including legal protections like patents, trademarks and copyrights; alternative protections using secrecy, complex designs or lead time; collaboration strategies; and open source strategies. For each type of strategy, specific tactics are described and models are presented showing how they relate to each other. The goal is to help SMEs study and select appropriate approaches to managing their intellectual property.

1. Strategic Management of
Intellectual Property for SME’s
By Aditya Kochhar
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 1
This work by Aditya Kochhar is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

2. • To study various intellectual property
management strategies used in small to
medium enterprise
Objective
2© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013

3. • Legal Protection Strategies
• Alternative Protection Strategies
• Collaboration Strategies
• Open Source Strategies
Overview
3© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013

4. • Innovate and differentiate as a standard policy
• Innovations can be imitated by competitors
• Negative effect on profitability by imitation
• Need appropriate intellectual property strategies to
protect Intellectual Property
Introduction
4© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013

5. Legal Protection Strategies,
Group One and Group Two
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 5

6. Group One
Trade Secrets, Patents, Utility
Models, Industrial Design, and
Research Disclosures
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 6

7. Trade Secrets
7© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Secrecy
Protection
Trade
Secret
Trade
Secret
Non-Imitable
Internal
Difficult to
independently
invent

8. Patents/Utility Models/Industrial
Designs
8© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Probable/
Product
Profit>Cost Imitable Protect

9. Research Disclosures
9© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Patent Patent
Problem Solution
Product
Competitor
Competitor Product
R.D. R.D.
R.D.
R.D.R.D.
R.D.

10. Overall Strategic Model
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 10
Research
Disclosures
Patents/U.M./I.D.
Trade Secrets
Non-Imitable Difficult to independently Invent
Imitable Commercializable
Covered in patented claims
Probable competitor to products

11. Group Two
Copyrights, Geographical Indicators,
and Trade Marks
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 11

12. Copyrights
12© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Copyright
at birth
Media
Contracts
and licenses
Business
Policies and
Documents
Promotional
Content
Registered
Unregistered
Level of Protection

13. Geographical Indicators
13© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Positive
Customer
Sentiments
Geographical
location of
business
G.I.

14. Trademark
14© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Promotional
Content and
Media
Successful Trademark
TrademarkPromotion
Success/
Failure

15. Overall Strategic Model
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 15
Trademark
Other
G.I.
Copyright

16. Alternative Protection Strategies,
Complexity of design, Lead Time
Advantage, Secrecy, and No
Protection
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 16

17. Complexity of Design
17© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Patents
Complexity
of Design

18. Lead Time Advantage
18© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
G1
G2
G3
G4 G5
G1
G2
G3
SME
Competition

19. Secrecy
19© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Lead Time
Advantage
Patent
Secrecy
Complexity
of Design

20. No Protection
20© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
No
Protection
Price point
Comp.
Economies
of Scale
Less
Competition
Local
Markets
Price Point Competition
Economies of Scale
Less Competition
Local Markets

21. Overall Strategic Model
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 21
Lead Time
Advantage
Secrecy
Complexity
of Design
No Legal Protection
Short generation-span
products
Difficult to
imitate products Transferable skills, information,
and resource protection
Prospective profits < Cost of legal protection or low investment capital

22. Collaboration Strategies,
Collaboration with Large
Companies, other SME’s, focus
groups, and customers
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 22

23. With Large Companies
23© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Large Company
SME
Manuf
acturer
SME
Distrib
uter
SME
Market
ing
SME
R&D
Copyrights
T.S., Patents/ I.D./ U.M.
Trademark, G.I.,
Copyrights, T.S.,
Patents, I.D., U.M.
Trademark,
Copyright

24. With Other SME
24© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Marketing
SME
R&D SME
Manufacturing
SME
Interconnecting
Medium
SME
SME
SME
SME

25. With focus groups
25© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
SME
FG1
FG2
FG3
Product Ideas
and
Development

26. With Customers
26© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Customer Needs and
Aspirations
Product Ideas and
Improvement
Suggestions
Products by
SME

27. Overall Strategic Model
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 27
S.M.E.
L.C.
S.M.E.
Cust.
F.G.
Licensing Agreements, Contracts, etc
Specialized
Collaboration
Product Ideas and
Improvement Suggestions
Product Development

28. Open Source Strategies,
Open Source Software, Open
Content, and Open Source Hardware
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 28

29. Open
Software
Open Source
Code
Can be
commercially
used
Can’t be
commercially
used
Freeware
Open Software
29© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013

30. Open Content
30© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Generate Content
License free for
personal use
Can be
shared with
same
license
Can be
shared with
different
license
License free for
personal and
Commercial use
Can be
shared with
same
license
Can be
shared with
different
license

31. Open Hardware
31© Aditya Kochhar6/6/2013
Design
License and
Distribute
Manufacture Consult
Trademark

32. Overall Strategy
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 32
Open Source
Content
Commercializable
Non-
Commercializable
Software
Commercializable
Non-
Commercializable
Hardware
Commercializable
Non-
Commercializable
E.g. Marketing Material
E.g. Support Software
Open to remix
and use
Restricted
Prospective
Product
Experimental
E.g. Arduino Project, 3D Printers Manufacturing
and Consultation
Hobby Projects
and Research

33. Thank You.
6/6/2013 © Aditya Kochhar 33