Gor Tex Case Study

Case Study 1. Explain what happened to the Gore-Tex brand after the patent expired. What activity can firms use to try to maintain any advantage developed during the patent protection phase?
According to quizlaw.com when a patent expires the technology the inventor no longer has the exclusive rights to his or her invention opening it up to everyone. At this point other companies can offer comparative products at reduced prices. I think that Gore-Tex was smart to take advantage of their own patent and expand the product line to include other products using the same technology. The company is overall smart by also not relying on only the Gore-Tex technology but expand into other areas.

2. List some of the wide range of products where the Gore-Tex fabric has been applied?
According to Gore-Tex web site they offer Raincoats, coats, back-packs, shoes, trousers, soft shell jackets, gloves, socks, hunter hats, baseball hat, gaiters, and bike hats all for men, women and kids. If I understand this right in our text book, Gore-Tex has helped advance the science in regenerating tissues.

3. It seems that Gore Associates is heavily oriented towards technology; what are some of the dangers of being too heavily focused on technology?
It seems that sometimes when we too heavily into just technology we overlook the simple things that help develop into products. When too many projects are going on based on technology the costs can become astronomical and can weigh down the company by tying up resources, both physical and monetary. Sometimes in developing more and more you loose sight of the initial goal or come up with too many variables and loose the opportunity.

4. Cooperatives and share-ownership schemes provide many attractions and benefits, but there are also limitations; discuss these.
I can see that there may be too many voices and too many people wanting to go into different directions if there isn’t a clear direction of the company. There would be too many people to be accountable to that can slow advancement.

5. What has been the Gore strategy to achieving success in its markets? How is this strategy now being challenged?
I think that Gore was able to find the item in the market that was a niche, something that was unique enough that it was hard to duplicate but with plenty of ‘generic’ knock offs to still give them competition. Gore’s product line was expandable and they were also able to improve their original product and continue to advance into other areas.

Since the original patent had expired it opens up the market for others to take over, but since Gore is inventive enough it would be pretty hard for anyone to slide them out of the way.