This article, How to Improve your Innovation ROI with Early Stage Patent Expertise, was published in late 2010 as a pay for download article in Innovation Management Magazine. It later became free for download, and I can share it with readers in this link. I hope those responsible for creating value from IP in their organizations can find the insights in this article helpful. Here is a synopsis:
Innovation teams are often removed organizationally from a company’s patent matters. This can mean that corporate innovation processes move forward with little or no consideration of whether competitors can legally “knock off” the resulting consumer offering. Companies may then not attain expected ROI because competitors can legally copy the innovation—be it a product, technology or otherwise—without incurring legal liability. It may not always be necessary to protect innovation