This month, we celebrate the release of John Palfrey's
newest book, Intellectual
Property Strategy (MIT
Press). John is a Berkman Center Faculty Co-Director and Henry N. Ess
Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at
Harvard Law School, and co-author of Born Digital: Understanding the
First Generation of Digital Natives (2008, Basic Books). Intellectual
Property
Strategy is now available for purchase and can be accessed in e-book form via the
Amazon Kindle.
On Monday, November 21st at 6pm, we invite
you to join the Berkman Center and the HLS Libraryfor a discussion on the book and a demonstration of an iPad app that
will offer interactive media features and interviews with leaders in the IP field, and
showcase new ways in which innovative organizations and people can
employ multiple intellectual property approaches.
Additionally, this week's installment of Radio Berkman is
dedicated to many of the issues addressed in Intellectual Property
Strategy, and offers an audio primer of key themes found in the
book.
From MIT
Press:
Most managers leave intellectual property issues to the legal department, unaware that an organization’s intellectual property can help accomplish a range of management goals, from accessing new markets to improving existing products to generating new revenue streams. In this book, intellectual property expert and Harvard Law School professor John Palfrey offers a short briefing on intellectual property strategy for corporate managers and nonprofit administrators. Palfrey argues for strategies that go beyond the traditional highly restrictive “sword and shield” approach, suggesting that flexibility and creativity are essential to a profitable long-term intellectual property strategy--especially in an era of changing attitudes about media.
Intellectual property, writes Palfrey, should be considered a key strategic asset class. Almost every organization has an intellectual property portfolio of some value and therefore the need for an intellectual property strategy. A brand, for example, is an important form of intellectual property, as is any information managed and produced by an organization. Palfrey identifies the essential areas of intellectual property--patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret--and describes strategic approaches to each in a variety of organizational contexts, based on four basic steps.
The most innovative organizations employ multiple intellectual property approaches, depending on the situation, asking hard, context-specific questions. By doing so, they achieve both short- and long-term benefits while positioning themselves for success in the global information economy.
More information can be found on the book's website. Intellectual Property Strategy can be purchased at:
Congratulations to John on this impressive achievement!
