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- Ewing, Thomas, 1958
(författare)
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Indirect Exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights By Corporations and Investors: IP Privateering & Modern Letters of Marque & Reprisal
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Competitive pressures and rent-seeking behaviors have motivated companies and investors to develop indirect techniques for beneficially exploiting third-party intellectual property rights (IPRs) that qualitatively depart from the slate of direct exploitation tools whose usage has been honed during the past 30 years of the pro-patent era. Companies have increasingly realized that they do not need to create IPRs themselves to exploit them beneficially, which has been the conventional usage pattern. Among other things, because of a growing IPR market, companies can exploit IPRs beyond those arising from their own research and development (R&D) activities; they can simply purchase IPRs previously obtained by others. Similarly, a company defending itself in an IPR litigation may bring counterclaims against the plaintiff using not only its own IPRs but also market-acquired IPRs. These third-party purchases can be very helpful when the company holds no pertinent IPRs of its own. In a further development to this indirection trend, which is the subject of this thesis, companies have further realized that not only do they not need to create IPRs in order to exploit them beneficially, companies have also realized that they do not even need to own IPRs in order to consequently benefit from their exploitation by others. This phenomenon is labeled here as “IP privateering” because of its similarities to a method of waging war on the high seas that was banned by international treaty some 150 years ago.This thesis comprises a descriptive portion followed by a normative portion. After recounting the increasing IPR competition and rent seeking of the past 30 years, the descriptive portion identifies IP privateering as a strategy among the set of IPR litigations and licensing assertions. This behavior is classified as a specie of aggressive non-practicing entities (NPEs), with the distinction being that an aggressive NPE has no sponsor and is solely motivated by maximizing revenue from IPR assertions while an IP privateer has a sponsor who seeks consequential benefits from IPR assertions against specific target companies. The parameters of this newly identified strategy are probed using a variety of methods. Because of the sponsor’s needs to keep this strategy secret, the strategy has likely spread slowly among a small set of operating companies. The apparent evolution of this indirect IPR exploitation strategy is traced among these companies. Techniques for uncovering hidden information about NPEs are discussed and employed as tools for locating IP privateering cases among the aggressive NPEs. The limitations of this method for discovering sponsors are discussed. Electronic detection of indirect IPR exploitation is also discussed along with some highly granular results. Possibilities for future methodological developments are discussed, and it is also noted that specific government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), have at their disposal tools that are not available to the academic community that could be used to gauge the breadth and depth of IP privateering, especially among the population of investors, and for curtailing the behavior where it is clearly illegal. A typology for IP privateering is provided that identifies the key variables associated with this strategy. Examples of privateering, both actual and hypothetical are also discussed. The identified privateering scenarios, while small in number, have amounted to well over $3 billion USD in rent collections and have possibly saved sponsoring companies an order of magnitude more in avoided revenue losses. Limitations on the strategy are explored by examining the negative consequences that could arise for the privateering sponsor. The risk of losing business reputation is discussed along with the various counterclaims that a target might potentially bring against a sponsor discovered in litigation. Corporate formalisms and lack of public disclosure regarding corporate ownership and control are discussed as tools that may prohibit targets from even being aware of IP privateering so that they could formulate counterclaims. The descriptive section discusses the infrastructure that supports privateering and concludes with a discussion of how a possible patent oversupply may facilitate this strategy. The normative portion observes that existing law may possibly be used to curtail anticompetitive and market manipulative privateering but further observes that effective curtailment may require the intervention of the SEC as well as the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, as private actors may be unable to defend themselves adequately. A review of those forms of privateering that are not clearly anticompetitive or market manipulative concludes that they will likely continue in the short-to-medium term and may require the intervention of the legislator if their curtailment is desired. The social utility of these legal forms of privateering is examined from various points of view including corporate, SME, investor, and inventor. Further questions are posed regarding IP privateering and aggressive NPEs (observing that both actors are likely supported financially by participants operating in the investment capital market), the need for ownership transparency in the innovation system, and whether the legislator should more explicitly design an innovation system that includes boundaries for various IPR strategies. The thesis concludes with an outline for further analysis and the additional tools that may need to be developed to support further studies.
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| 2. |
- Holgersson, Marcus, 1983
(författare)
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Intellectual Property Strategies and Innovation: Causes and Consequences for Firms and Nations
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- New and useful ideas and knowledge, commonly denoted innovations after coming into use, are of decisive importance for economic growth and welfare. To promote the generation and diffusion of innovations, most, if not all, industrialized and industrializing societies rely on some form of an intellectual property rights (IPRs) system. As technological diversification, technological convergence, and open innovation become increasingly important, proper management of and strategies for IPRs and intellectual property (IP) becomes ever more central for the competitiveness of firms and nations. The general purpose of this thesis it to explore and explain the causes and consequences of IP strategies and policies at firm, national, and international levels in different industrial contexts with different types and degrees of openness in innovation. With focus on technological innovations and technology-related IP, various methods are employed to fulfill the purpose. The results show that, due to IP policy developments at national and international level, large firms have increasingly developed various IP strategies, especially patent strategies, to appropriate returns from innovations. As an example, large firms were found to in a first step increase their patenting (in terms of quantity), and in a second step focus more on selective and quality-oriented patenting in which the IP-related work is also internationalized. This internationalization of IP heavily impacts the patent offices and IP policies, especially in small countries where the national patenting tend to decrease as a result. Small firms on the other hand cannot gain the same benefits as large firms from an IPR system, especially from the patent system as currently designed, since they do not have enough resources for monitoring and enforcing their rights, which in turn limits the protective function of patents. Instead, small firms use patents to attract customers and investors. Patents then provide a governance mechanism for early stage financing of innovations. A new measure based on statistics at the national level indicates that the preferred markets for patenting from firms and inventors in various countries become increasingly similar. In addition, there is a convergence of national legal IPR systems around the world. Developing and industrializing nations in this convergence process typically switch from a weak to a strong IP regime in their national innovation systems, at a point in time when the mainly innovative benefits of a strong regime outweigh the mainly imitative benefits of a weak regime for the nation and its firms. A similar switch from a weak to a strong IP regime can be seen in various innovation systems, e.g. in mobile telecommunications. The openness of innovation in such a corporate innovation system is closely related to the IP strategies of the involved firms, and the results show that the openness in a system is directly and strongly affected by changes in the IP strategies of its firms.The thesis shows the importance of the interaction between IP strategies of large and small firms, between different large and small nations’ IP policies, and between IP strategies of firms and IP policies of nations. Such interactions are essential to consider for future research, as are the roles of IPRs and IP management in innovation systems with various degrees of openness.
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| 3. |
- Kronblad, Charlotta, 1979
(författare)
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The Last Hour: How Digitalization has Transformed Firms in the Legal Industry
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis explores how digitalization has transformed firms in the legal industry. Based on a qualitative study of 22 law firms I explore what digitalization has entailed for firms and its wider effects. The aim is to understand the digital transformation of the industry as well as the effects for individual law firms. The analysis targets changes to the distinctive characteristics of law firms as well as the implications for their practices. The key finding is that digitalization has caused massive changes to their previous characteristics of high knowledge intensity, low capital intensity and a professionalized workforce, which in turn has altered the competitive context and triggered a variety of business responses. For instance, many new firms are challenging the logic of hourly billing and are creating alternatives to this practice. This suggests that we are approaching the last hour for the hourly dominance among law firms. However, the data show a split between firms, where it is mainly new players that employ new practices while incumbents remain largely the same. By applying a lens of institutional theory, I uncover why and argue that the dominant logic of law firms makes it difficult for incumbents to adapt to digitalization, whereas new firms use the institutional complexity introduced by digitalization to exploit new opportunities by adapting or creating new practices. These changes have resulted in a heterogeneity among law firms making one single categorization of them impossible. Therefore, this thesis propose that we update our existing assumptions about law firms in particular, and professional service firms in general, in order to explain and forecast their behavior moving forward.
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| 4. |
- Massaro, Maria, 1989
(författare)
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Radio Spectrum Regulation in the European Union A three-level context
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the light of the unprecedented growth of mobile broadband services, radio spectrum regulation is undergoing a substantial review in the European Union (EU). The radio spectrum presents a three-level regulatory context. At international level, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) regulates the allocation of radio spectrum. At regional level, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) promotes cooperation and coordination between European countries. At national level, National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) are responsible for assigning the radio spectrum. In addition, the EU has also the power to regulate the radio spectrum. The EU regulatory framework for radio spectrum has only recently been set up. Therefore, an exhaustive understanding of the role of the EU in the three-level regulatory context of radio spectrum is still lacking.Against this background, the purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the implications of the EU regulatory framework for radio spectrum. In other words, this thesis aims to address the following research question: how does the EU influence the three-level regulatory context of radio spectrum? In order to answer this research question, three academic papers are written, each focusing on the role of the EU in one regulatory level. Paper 1 focuses on the international level. Theories of international relations are employed to assess the effectiveness of the EU in influencing international negotiations on radio spectrum regulation. Paper 2 explores the regional level. Theories of EU integration provide the tools to understand the issue of competence distribution between EU and EU member states in the policy field of radio spectrum. Paper 3 deals with the national level. Theories on the regulation-innovation relation guide the assessment of a specific national regulatory regime, which has been particularly promoted by the EU. Although radio spectrum assignment is a national responsibility, the EU may indirectly impact on the national context by providing EU member states with ideas on innovative regulatory tools.A qualitative research strategy is adopted to conduct the research work described in this thesis. In particular, this research work is characterised by an iterative inductive-deductive process between theory and empirical data, whereby purpose, theoretical framework and data collected progressively and mutually shape one another. This thesis is mainly based on secondary data, retrieved from official documents, reports, news articles, academic papers and books. Backward and forward snowballing techniques are used to systematically find relevant secondary sources of data.This thesis concludes that the EU regulatory framework influences the three regulatory levels of radio spectrum to different extents. Firstly, the EU influences the international level thanks to the presence of the European Commission (EC) in international fora. The EC has the right to attend international negotiations on radio spectrum regulation and can oversee the actions of EU member states. Secondly, the EU impacts on the regional level by promoting harmonised availability of radio spectrum across the EU. To this objective, the EU adopts policy instruments which are legally binding for all EU member states. Furthermore, the EC cooperates with the CEPT in order to build consensus across the EU. Thirdly, the EU’s influence on the national regulatory level is confined to general regulatory principles for radio spectrum assignment. Nevertheless, the EU can still leverage on national regulation, by encouraging EU member states to adopt specific regulatory instruments.Although interesting implications of the EU regulatory framework for radio spectrum are ascertained in this thesis, the influence of the EU on the three-level regulatory context of radio spectrum has not been captured thoroughly. Future research in the form of a more systematic evaluation of the EU’s actorness (Bretherton & Vogler, 2006) is necessary to capture the relevance of the EU’s influence on both the international and regional regulatory levels. In addition, a detailed analysis of the issue of competence distribution between EU and EU member states is critical for better evaluating the extent to which the EU influences radio spectrum regulation at national level.
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