(I) Commercialization of intellectual property rights
The implement and transaction of IP have always been carried on from a legal perspective with the emphasis on the granting and technical transfer. This is different from what we know about how IP business activities should be conducted. Nevertheless if changed to a marketing point of view, there would be more than just one mode of the implement and transaction to reflect its value.
The biggest trade mode of interests turns out to be the implement of IP, including commercialization and industrialization, to pursue profits and advantages for the enterprises. IP transaction on the other hand has numerous forms, including sales and alienation, authorized technology transfer, evaluation investment (on start-ups, joint business, and equity participation etc.), financing guarantees, technical standards, patent alliances, infringement litigation, technical services, secondary research and development or derivative research and development etc. It is how we design the trade mode of IP that matters to maximize the value.
IP trade mode
IP trade mode refers to “the IP owner uses the right directly or indirectly, or uses the price differences to acquire sustainable economic compensation.” According to what we have observed on the development of IP trade mode, the immature marketing however can be our best time.
Specifically, IP trade mode can be divided into commercialization, industrialization and evaluate investment, technical standard and patent alliance, licensing, technology transfer, tort litigation, financing guarantee, secondary invention etc.
Commercialization and industrialization are two biggest IP modes of interests, also the key elements of raising the revenue for the global enterprises.
To generalize the two modes, we should consider how to use the exclusive IP rights to increase the share of rights holders in specific markets. It is not difficult to understand that exclusive right can be profitable from the perspective of law, but to use that strategy on business to legally freeze-out the competitors from the market however is a whole another thing. What matters as the premise is to take all the business activities into consideration before the actual transaction of IP, it also matters that wether the IP said would be qualified and good enough for the industrial competence and marketing.
(II) IP commodification
IP commodification refers to studying and inventing single product and necessarily as in the process to launch it on the market afterward. No matter what kinds of marketing mode it would be, for example the B2B and B2C, the technology and longevity of the IP would depend on the market mechanism. As in whether to further the production and marketing or technical innovation, it really depends on whether the clients are willing to pay the fee and make sustainable profits for the holder. While it can’t be recognized as commodification officially if such occasion happened as follow: some product models were invented and exhibited, successfully winning compliment and awards whist without any marketing activities afterwards to promote and confirm their value. It fails to complete the commodification for the lack of informative feedback for the R & D activities and intellectual property deployment.
In IP commodification, the industrial structure involved usually only in a small part of a particular industry, the demand and integration of the R & D resources involved ate both small, the products involved in its less technical transactions, the equipment and materials involved in the supply chain is more mature, and its value chain is more easily identified, the market involved more mature than the competition, the intellectual property involved are relatively large in number and difficult to redeploy. Besides, IP commodification had several operating modes of technical cooperation, R & D alliance, industry alliance, joint venture alliance etc, but their scale and size are far from industrialization.
One typical case of single commodification would be iPhone. Not being industrialization, iPhone was born in a very mature environment of mobile phone industry and optoelectronics industry with its well-known advantages in soft wares and brand manipulation. Rather to be an attempt of the high technology, the iPhone mode has carved out its own way in the IP commodification.
(III) IP industrialization
IP industrialization normally has been referred as a new state of industry formed by a series of products of materials, equipment, components and parts, modules etc, using technologies of all aspects.
IP industrialization covers every course of the development of the industrial structure. It takes time in adjustment or completed construction, with great demand of research resource and integration, as well as of a diversity of techniques in different fields. However, since the IP marketing has not yet had a sound environment for development, what’s more the equipment and materials related are not sufficient in storage to meet the need so far, there are quite small number of intellectual property cases with relatively strong technical support on the other hand, which is easier for the deployment.
To promote industrialization, we should keep our eyes on all the research projects, looking for perfect opportunities for any further development, in order to make systematic distribution and investment of resources in a clarified order of the development and investment, usually starting with the classification and differences of terminal application market.
The Parallel Function of IP commodification and industrialization
Major states:
- Used to dominate the relationship and degree of industry chain, control the value chain and the distribution of supply chain
- For the relationship and level of standard alliances, especially in the information and communications industry
- Used to shape the relationship and degree of the market share.
- For the relationship and degree market momentum, revenue and market share.
- Relationship and degree of trademark-to-brand transaction.
Execution of IP commodification and industrialization
IP commodification and industrialization involves organizational operation, product development and process management, with accordingly different needs of personnel resources and professional contribution. Therefore teamwork should be stressed out in the execution, as well as the wise, unprejudiced leadership for a bright future of IP commodification and industrialization.
IP investment
What is so important about IP investment is that the excellent inventors, composers and authors could expect their intellectual work be protected and transferred to the development of many new business, at the same time gain profitable interests as shareholders as well.
Conditions
- In compliance with the Foreign Pricing Investment requirements;
- The types, clusters, combinations, regions of intellectual property rights, as well as the relationship and effectiveness of the period, should be easy to identify, distinguish, evaluate and select mechanisms;
- The implied obligations of intellectual property rights should be specific and typed;
- The proportion of the capital between the shares of the intellectual property and the capital invested in the shares shall be letting the shareholders' agreement be promulgated by the law and shall not exceed the proportion of the paid-up capital of the company;
- The intellectual property rights of the object of intellectual property rights, and its competitors, intellectual property rights and commercialization and industrialization and other factors, should perform a differentiated analysis, specifically to find the shares of intellectual property industry, technology and market value;
- The Company shall be subject to the Shareholders' Agreement and shall not be subject to any or all of the shares of the Shares at the price of the Shares