The economics and management of intellectual property: towards intellectual capitalism

Unknown author(s)

Choice Reviews Online · 2000 · 300 citations · 0 references

Concepts

TL;DR

The volume surveys intellectual property, tracing the global shift toward intellectual capitalism driven by technology-based corporations, and provides a comprehensive overview of IP history and fundamentals. The book aims to illuminate the economics and management of intellectual property within large corporations across Europe, Japan, and the USA. It examines acquisition, commercialization, patent, secrecy, trademark, and technology intelligence strategies, illustrated through case studies of major Japanese firms such as Canon, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Sony. The study concludes that intellectual property management may evolve into distributed intellectual capital management as part of a broader shift to intellectual capitalism, driven by emerging technologies, especially infocom technologies.

Abstract

This volume focuses on intellectual property and charts the global transition towards intellectual capitalism with technology-based corporations as prime movers. It offers a comprehensive overview of the history and fundamentals of intellectual property as well as an introduction to the field. The author seeks to shed light on the economics and management of intellectual property in large corporations in Europe, Japan and the USA. Special emphasis is given to strategies for the acquisition and commercialization of new technologies, patent strategies and strategies for secrecy and trademark, technology intelligence and corporate management of intellectual property. The book includes an in-depth study of leading large corporations in Japan - Canon, Hitachi, Toshiba and Sony. In conclusion, it explores the possible evolution of intellectual property management towards a distributed intellectual capital management in the context of a wider transition to intellectual capitalism, fuelled by new technologies in general and new infocom technologies in particular.