5.6 R&D (HL) Flashcards
Limitations/problems with R&D?
● Opportunity costs – what else could the money be spent on?
● In the wrong direction – not necessarily there is a market for it.
● Time- Workforce is tied to a project for years, without any ROI (return on investment) for the company during that time.
● Ethical issues: genetically modified? stem cells? animal experiments?
4 types of intellectual property rights?
Patents (up to 20years)
Trademarks (around 10 years with renewal terms)
Copyright (50-100 years after death of author))
Trade secrets (unlimited)
The types of patents?
Utility patents: Protection for a product or process that serves a practical purpose and is useful such as vehicle safety systems, software, and pharmaceuticals. This was the first, and is still the largest, area of patent law.
A process patent is a form of utility patent that covers methods of changing the functionality or characteristics of a material during a particular use. Processes should meet certain criteria to be eligible for protection.
Design patents: Protection for the aesthetics of a device or invention, such as product’s shape, emojis, fonts, or any other distinct visual traits.
Plant patents: An example of a plant patent is pest-free versions of fruit trees. If the tree has unique visual properties, inventors may also want a design patient.
Protection areas of trademark laws?
Trademarks protect logos, sounds, words, colors, or symbols used by a company to distinguish its service or product. Trademark examples include the Twitter logo, McDonald’s golden arches, and the font used by Dunkin.
Although patents protect one product, trademarks may cover a group of products. Sometimes it is useful, after the expiry of patent on design to protect under trademark law.
You can keep your trademark registered for as long as it is kept in use, but you must renew it every (around) 10 years.
A trademark actually goes a bit further, prohibiting any marks that have a “likelihood of confusion” with an existing one. Therefore, a business can’t use a symbol or brand name if it looks similar, sounds similar, or has a similar meaning to one that’s already on the books, at least if the products or services are related. If the trademark holder believes there’s a violation of these rights, it may decide to sue.
Trade secrets?
Company’s intellectual property that isn’t public, has economic value, and carries information. They may be a formula, recipe, or process used to gain a competitive advantage.
Although a patent is public, trade secrets remain unavailable to anyone but the owner.
To qualify as a trade secret, companies must work to protect proprietary information actively. Once the information is public knowledge, then it’s no longer protected under trade secrets laws.
Well-known examples include the recipe for Coca-Cola and Google’s search algorithm.
Patent vs trademark?
Patents and trademark are not opposing choices, they serve different purpose. Patent may be authorised to used against a royalty. A company would not normally give the right to use their trademark (if there is no farther agreement like a franchise)
Unlike patents, a trademark protects words and design elements that identify the source of a product.
Patent vs trade secret?
Patents and trade secrets present opposing choices, they generally serve the same purpose to protect a competitive advantage from unauthorised use, Though patent can be authorised to use in exchange of a royalty payment.
Patents even protect against competitors even if they have come to the same discovery independently. They just don’t have the right to use a discovery patented by you without your permission/license. However, patents last only around 20 years and the applicant must disclose the invention to the public. The patent gives the inventor “first mover advantage”.
A trade secret, could theoretically last forever, but trade secret law only prohibits the theft, it does not prevent a competitor from engineering the innovation or from independently discovering and using the secret.
Product innovation?
The “what” question!
Where new products are created, or improvements to existing products are made,
Process innovation?
The “how” question!
Where some parts of the manufacturing or service delivery are improved, for example with the JIT system.
service innovation
May cover aspects pertaining to both “product innovation” and “process innovation”, e.g. the ability to track online the progress of purchase.
Positioning innovation ?
Refers to the use or perception of a new product or service. The word “positioning” is in the marketing sense of “in relationship to competitors”, as with a product position map. It is related to rebranding.
Paradigm innovation?
Refers to an innovation so important that it may change the industry itself both short-term and long-term. e.g. Airbnb ; couchsurfing; linkedin.
The 4 Ps of innovation?.
● Product innovation,
● Process innovation,
● Positioning innovation, and
● Paradigm innovation
Adaptive creativity?
●Creativity that transfers and applies existing forms of thinking and problem solving to new scenarios or different situations.
● Systematic thinking
● Improvement of current paradigm
●Thinking inside the box
Innovative creativity?
●Generates new forms of thinking, addressing problems from an unusual perspective.
●Interdisciplinary approach
●less structure
●breaks and modifies current paradigm
●Thinking outside the box
