Intellectual Pr

Teresa da Silva Lopes

Intellectual Property Rights in
International Business Strategy

International Business Strategy
1

Intellectual Property Rights in IBS
Learning Outcomes
- Distinguish trademarks, from patents, copyrights and trade secrets. - Discuss the importance of intellectual property protection in today’s global business.
- How protection of intellectual property rights may affect the activity of a firm operating internationally

Univ. of York; International Business Strategy; Professor Teresa da Silva Lopes

2

Context of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
• An IPR is an intellectual property right on “imagination made real” (as defined by the US patent and trademark office). • IPRs came about as a natural evolution from property rights on land, capital and labour.
• An IPR is intangible as opposed to tangible property
• IPRs are extremely important because it provides a legal mechanism to have:
- competitive differentiator (truly strategic elements in IB)
- exclusivity
- increase performance and value creation
- improve sustainability
Univ. of York; International Business Strategy; Professor Teresa da Silva Lopes

3

Context of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
•

Increasing importance of Intellectual Capital (IC) including Intellectual
Property Rights (IPRs) in global business

•

Capturing value from IC and knowledge-based assets has become the new major issue:
– finding ways in which institutions can help firms with this increasingly important practice has become an explicit agenda for many governments •

Consensus among industry, national governments, international agencies
– tightening the IPR system will enable firms to better capture the value from their productive knowledge assets.

Univ. of York; International Business Strategy; Professor Teresa da Silva Lopes

4

Types of Intellectual Property
Patent
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in