Chapter 2
The Changing Environment for IP Management
The previous edition of this book revived the legacy of Thomas Edison at a time when corporate leaders were just beginning to recognize the need for true innovation—the importance of managing intellectual property for business value. In the 10 intervening years, as boardrooms have pursued this goal, they have faced significant changes in the global business ecosystem all affecting—and affected by—IP. These include revolutionary developments in legal, judicial, economic, and management domains. In this chapter we highlight a decade’s worth of the most important transformations from the perspective of operating companies managing their intellectual property, for business value—all based on ICM Gathering experience. These changes set the table for the subsequent discussions about current best practices for each level of the Edison Hierarchy.
We have identified some major changes that have affected the ways in which Gathering company managers view intellectual property, and the ways in which they manage it.
