3G IPR Recommended Reading: Nokia's Ilkka Rahnasto ...
... who is generally considered to be Nokia's IP Strategy Architect published this one in 2003, and it gives some hints about Nokia's current IP strategy and posture that Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, stated in a recent interview that Nokia adopted in 2002.
I think it has become apparent that Nokia is no longer the patent pussycat they were in the previous decade in which they transitioned from a Passive IPR posture to a very Active one, and in this decade they have transitioned from an Active but Defensive posture to an Active and Offensive posture.
This book provides some insight, I think, into Nokia's IP Strategy ...
Intellectual Property Rights, External Effects, and Anti-Trust Law
Leveraging IPRs in the Communications Industry
Author: Ilkka Rahnasto, VP of IPR, Nokia Corporation
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Price: £73.00 (Hardback) from the above or $175.50 from Amazon
Best Price: $$138.60 (Used - Good)
ISBN-10: 0-19-925428-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-925428-6
Publication date: 13 February 2003
256 pages
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Description:
* Considers the legal and economic aspects of intellectual property in the communications industry
* Includes substantial discussion of the innovation process and of how companies leverage their intellectual property rights in order to maintain market leadership
Overview: The interplay between intellectual property protection and antitrust rules in the communications industry is examined in this timely book, with particular focus upon the role of externalities in that interplay. There is substantial discussion of the innovation process and of how companies leverage their intellectual property rights in order to obtain market leadership. Particular emphasis is also placed upon how legal doctrines have developed to cope with these issues, and related economic analysis is also discussed.
Readership: Legal practitioners working in intellectual property law, competition law and communications law worldwide; law firms, patent agencies, IT consultants, corporate legal and business development functions, policy makers, universities and law schools in the US and Europe. Academics and reference libraries in the UK and worldwide.
Table of Contents
·
1. Introduction
2. How the tension between intellectual property protection and
antitrust laws is balanced
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Supremacy of antitrust laws
2.3 Supremacy of intellectual property laws
2.4 Theory based on the scope of exclusive rights
2.5 Intellectual property rights as property
2.6 Cost-benefit theories
3. External effects and balancing theories
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Balance between intellectual property rights, competition and
external effects in network-based value chain
4. External effects theory applied
4.1 Relevance of addressee/impact combination
4.2 Relevance of chosen action
4.3 Intellectual property and effects of technical design
4.4 Relevance of totality of circumstances
5. Fragmentation problem
5.1 Fragmentation and success of new products
5.2 Fragmentation problem introduced
5.3 The problem of anticommons in the communications industry
6. External effects of intellectual property rights in technology adoption
6.1 Tipping of scale
6.2 Technology adoption re-examined: standardization
7. Conclusions
Reviewers Comments and Excerpts from the Introduction:
>> In a recent book on "Leveraging IPR in the Communications Industry", Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President and Director of IPR at Nokia Corporation, Finland, explains the characteristics of "defensive" vs "offensive" IPR strategies. The latter, as practised by Nokia, include "strategic planning of the use of intellectual property rights in the business, proactive litigation of intellectual property rights and active lobbying for new intellectual property legislation." The book is a candid discussion of the public pro's and con's of strong IP rights in industries with powerful network effects, examined through the prism of arguments presented in various legal jurisdictions, and courts' reactions to them. ...
The book is a candid discussion of the public pro's and con's of strong IP rights in industries with powerful network effects, examined through the prism of arguments presented in various legal jurisdictions, and courts' reactions to them.
Here he sets the scene: in a world where products and services combine different technical and creative components, IPRs are no longer just a way of preventing direct copying -- they should be seen first and foremost as a way for companies to influence other companies and how they allocate their resources.
[1.14 p. 6] One of the traditional views is that intellectual property rights are necessary for individual companies in order to protect their investment and to exclude imitations. This may still be an important reason for business firms to rely on intellectual property protection. However, this book is based on the presumption that intellectual property rights are strategially important because with patents and copyright is possible to control other firms' behaviour and influence the manner in which they allocate their resources.
[1.15] During the second half of the twentieth century, intellectual property rights were for a long time the cornerstone of the serial model of innovation. Companies were developing their own products, authors were writing their own books and more recently software developers were writing their own computer programs. From the social and economic perspective, it was desirable that those who were first in doing something were granted limited exclusivity to their results. It was even concluded that it was desirable to encourage such activities, so it was clear that one should not deliberately copy what others were doing. Unless your strategy was based on copying of others' products, this conclusion was not partiularly interesting for anyone engaged in the development of business strategies.
Consequently companies adopted either passive or active intellectual property strategies. A passive intellectual property strategy meant that the company adopted a strategy of investing in intellectual property rights as little as possible. An active intellectual property strategy meant that the company was actively organizing the detection of new innovations, was patenting its innovations, protecting its trade marks, clearing new products against prior rights and attacking imitators.
Since most of this had seldom any direct impact on the success of the company, it was not surprising, as one commentator identified, that patents were long considered to be an uninteresting subject for study and business strategy. In many countries, copyright was similarly seen as only being a part of cultural policy, as the legislation was relevant only to the experts of collecting societies and media houses.
[1.16] The approach has changed. Intellectual property rights have gained new popularity as ingredients of industrial policy. At the same time, entirely proprietary product concepts are giving way to products and services that combine various technical and creative components. A successful business strategy is increasingly based on intellectual property rights because through intellectual property rights it is possible increasingly to control the activities of other companies. Accordingly, companies are adopting either offensive or defensive intellectual property strategies.
An offensive intellectual property strategy is based on strategic planning of the use of intellectual property rights in the business, proactive litigation of intellectual property rights and active lobbying for new intellectual property legislation. A defensive intellectual property strategy is aimed at minimizing any effects the intellectual property strategies of others may have on the business of the company.
It is clear from this that Nokia itself is pursuing an "offensive IPR strategy". ... In recent years, Siemens has been engaging in and talking about the same kind of "offensive IPR strategy". <<
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- Eric - |
