Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

ROBERT L. CANTRELL is a professional strategist and Director of Consulting at Landon IP, Inc. He has managed multiple consulting and analytical engagements across a wide range of technology sectors that include the communications, electronics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, energy, and consumer goods fields. For Landon IP customers, Mr. Cantrell manages patent analytical projects, innovation and IP strategy sessions, and advanced training courses. He is on the faculty of Patent Resources Group (PRG), the leading provider of advanced patent education to the legal and business communities. His core expertise in classical strategy has been proven to have wide applicability across many professional disciplines.

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In the field of patents, there are still innumerable treasures that have not been unearthed; they are hidden in the patent files of a company, or more likely, in the minds of brilliant researchers waiting for the right connection of ideas and support.
 
Taking the mystery out of patent strategy for business management, Outpacing the Competition explores the business dynamics behind creating, acquiring, advancing, and defending patentable assets. Revealing the dynamics central to winning the competition for ideas and relationships through which companies derive successful products, this innovative book puts patentable assets, the core value of technology companies, at the center of a broader business strategy discussion.
 
Combining business strategy with legal and classical strategy, Outpacing the Competition makes it clear how professionals can and should integrate patents into all aspects of business strategy in order for an organization to achieve its full financial potential, with discussion of:
 
* Emergent treasures: the creation and acquisition of valuable inventions from bright people
* Ways to organize and use non-obvious advantages from the point of view of patent strategy
* The ongoing decision cycle of assessment, decision, and action
* The race of decision cycles in determining business tempo
* Patents as a key driver of business growth for companies
* The proven strategy models that illustrate how patents work
 
Filled with case studies and real-world anecdotes, this strategic guide equips professionals with tools to cultivate, grow, and guard their patents, and breaks down three key learning points about patent strategy: understanding what patent strategy is, winning the race of decision cycles, and mastering the interplay of interaction and isolation that occurs between companies through patent transactions and enforcement.
 
Patents provide a brief window of opportunity for companies to enforce the exclusivity of their inventions before competitors are able to imitate their ideas. As the most quantifiable of intellectual property assets, patents are the cornerstone of a new type of business strategy that, while practiced, has not been adequately described. Until now.
 
Required reading for business professionals and attorneys, Outpacing the Competition delivers much-needed guidance in developing business strategy that leverages the competitive advantages afforded by patents.

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Praise for Outpacing the Competition Patent-Based Business Strategy
 
"Outpacing the Competition provides a useful IP management framework for rapidly evolving and inherently unpredictable R&D environments where companies are partners, customers, and competitors at the same time." -Marshall Phelps, Corporate Vice President for IP Policy & Strategy, Microsoft
 
"Robert Cantrell's book Outpacing the Competition: Patent-Based Business Strategy?should be read by?anyone?involved in the practice of litigating or licensing patent rights or policymakers responsible for patent issues. Mr. Cantrell provides a cogent approach for applying decisional methodology and game theory to enhance the utilization and understanding of patent rights."-Bradley J. Olson, Esq., patent attorney, Washington, DC
 
"Robert Cantrell makes a compelling case for using intellectual property as a core for building solid business strategy. He provides a unique and valuable perspective on competitive advantage, as delivered through patent-based business strategy. This is an excellent addition to anyone's business strategy arsenal." -Jeff Hovis, Managing Principal, Product Genesis, Innovation Genesis LLC
 
"Robert truly treats patents and related intellectual property as both a weapon and a shield to help the reader use patents to out-maneuver global competitors of all kinds-the low-cost producer, the high-end innovator, etc. CEOs, attorneys, business and engineering professionals and the like will enjoy the military imagery and flavor provided by Robert. Thanks for clarifying how critical it is to have an understanding of patents in running a truly competitive global business today." -José W. Jimenez, Esq., Chief Intellectual Property Officer,AMS Research Corporation

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Outpacing the Competition

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

In today's technology-driven markets, most companies compete through ideas and relationships. Their most important assets are their intellectual property, knowledge, and people. Patents, as the most quantifiable of intellectual property assets, are the cornerstone of a new type of business strategy that, while practiced, has not been adequately described. This book intends to provide that description and to take the mystery out of patent strategy for business management.

When compared to marketing or financial strategy, patent strategy in business has barely been touched on as a professional discipline. Because of this, patent strategy presents a significant opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Whereas an opportunity for financial arbitrage can have a lifespan of seconds before astute financial strategists notice and act, opportunities for arbitrage on the value of patentable ideas can remain open to discovery for years. An astute patent strategist can expect to find and create value far in excess of the investment required to capture that value, if for no other reason than that the patent field is less understood than other areas of business. In the patent field, all the treasures have not already been discovered; they may yet be hidden in the patent files of a company or more likely, in the minds of brilliant researchers waiting for the right connection of ideas and support.

Treasures in the patent world are both buried and emergent. This book focuses on the emergent treasures: the creation and acquisition of valuable inventions from bright people. This is in keeping with the fact that the vast majority of wealth generated by patents is gained from the patents used in a company's core business. Much has been discussed in professional circles about licensing non-core assets buried in the patent portfolio, and tangential value here should not be overlooked, but the fact remains that the primary value is emergent and in the business core.

With that in mind, we bring a thought from classical strategy into the present. Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor who reigned from 161 to 180 A.D., stated that "The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious." Many historians consider Marcus Aurelius to be the last of the "five good emperors of Rome," and his philosophy for success on the battlefield still holds true to this day. His statement pertains to military conflict, but it carries with it a universal truth that pertains to patent strategy: If you can understand and organize important people, ideas, and tools that your competitors cannot, then you can reach levels of success your competitors cannot hope to achieve.

This book will show you ways to organize and use non-obvious advantages from the point of view of patent strategy. To do so, it will introduce three key learning points as follows:

1. The definition of patent strategy. The first key to strategy, patent and otherwise, is to understand what strategy is. Strategy is a solution that takes you from a current situation to a new situation. As a solution, strategy addresses the necessary existence of options, uncertainty, and obstacles. It provides a way to take action even in the face of absolute unknowns so that you can produce a positive result within the constraints of your operation, even if it is not exactly the result you had conceived when your action began. Patent strategy is a component of business strategy that deals with the options, uncertainty, and obstacles involved in the creation, use, and defense of technical ideas. It addresses how to cost-effectively build and manage patent portfolios from which to advance and defend the business in a research and development environment that is inherently unpredictable. This book discusses patent strategy in context with business strategy, of which it is part and parcel, along with the components of classical strategy from which all strategies are derived.

2. The decision cycle. Patent strategy is composed of decision cycles that include three phases:

a. Assess-understand the situation b. Decide-choose a course of action

c. Act-execute the decision

In the face of many unknowns, an organization that can proficiently move through these decision cycles more quickly than its competitors can develop significant strategic advantages over its competitors in its ability to shape the competitive environment, respond to unpredicted opportunities and threats, and otherwise outpace the competition.

Decision cycles are not one-pass-through events. They are continuous cycles of assess, decide, and act, whereupon each action leads to new assessments, new decisions, and new actions, the complexity of which increases proportionally to the ambiguity of the objective. In a research and development environment, where the output of creative investment is unpredictable, the ambiguity is often high. You cannot reliably forecast important products and services that people have not yet invented and the market has not yet seen.

In patent strategy, proficiently moving through decision cycles involves proficiently creating or obtaining inventions, advancing those inventions into the market, and defending those inventions from competitors however the market ultimately develops. It also involves creating the orientation in the mind of decision makers that patents can serve as important tools from which to gain competitive advantage. The main body of this book uses the decision cycle as the primary guideline for how an organization should plan patent strategy and organize its intellectual property (IP) department.

3. The interplay between interaction and isolation. Patent strategy is an interplay between interaction and isolation. The patent itself is a tool that fosters both interaction and isolation. For example, the patent provides a definable asset from which to arrange licenses, a form of interaction, and it provides a tool with which to exclude competitors from making, using, or selling an invention in a marketplace, a form of isolation. This interplay provides the primary four rules from which you can build even the most complex and nuanced patent strategies. The rules are simple, but mastering the rules takes practice, experience, and a willingness to refine that practice throughout an entire career.

Although this book is about the business side of patent strategy, it is not specifically just about patents. Instead, it covers all aspects of business strategy in which patents play a part-namely, the creation, use, and defense of technical ideas. To try to explain patent strategy outside the context of business strategy would be like trying to explain the written word without showing its greater utility in sentences, paragraphs, and books. A single enforceable patent, like a single word, can have power; that power, however, is minor compared to the power available when that patent works in concert with other enforceable patents and all the other sources of power that people can use to advance and defend an invention in the marketplace. Furthermore, it is also important to understand that this is a book about what to do...