• Understand the debate on the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) on organizations and society
• Know basic concepts related to intellectual property rights (e.g., optimal design, cumulative innovation, licensing, markets for technology, litigation and enforcement, private-public partnerships, value of R&D and patents, finance and intellectual property, IPR and measurement of innovation)
• Identify issues related to the management of intellectual property (IP) in organizations
• Analyze and evaluate the effects of the introduction of intellectual property rights from an economic point of view
• Explain how changes in intellectual property law transforms businesses and the business landscape
• Reflect on the opportunities and challenges posed by intellectual property rights to organizations and the society
• Select relevant theory to analyze and discuss practical issues, arguments and perspectives on intellectual property right protection in theoretically informed ways
• Understand and use the tools provided in the literature and connect the literature to specific issues centered around the protection of intellectual property rights

The aim of this course is to introduce students to central topics related to the economics and management of intellectual property rights, which are located at the intersection of economic, management and legal issues. For this purpose, this course will discuss theories, models and tools that are central to the topic of intellectual property rights. Building on this foundation, practical causes and consequences will be discussed using real world examples, case studies, legal cases and results of empirical studies.

The public interest in intellectual property rights has increased in recent years, not least due to phenomena such as the smartphone “patent wars”, the rise of generic pharmaceuticals and increasing importance of open source software. Intellectual property rights refer to the protection of intellectual creations (e.g., inventions, designs, literary works, symbols) by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks. This gives people the exclusive right to gain financial benefit for a certain period from what they have invented or created (e.g., the patents for the allergy drug Claritin by Schering-Plough). As a result, the design of the intellectual property rights system aims to create an environment that stimulates innovation and creativity.

Consequently, the management of intellectual property rights has become an important area in large companies (e.g., Lego), technology-based corporations (e.g., Amazon, Apple, Google) and creative industries (e.g., fashion, music) but also small and medium-sized companies (e.g., Aerogen). The management of intellectual property becomes also increasingly important for non-profit organizations such as universities and scientific institutions. Core topics regarding the economics and management of intellectual property rights in this course include

• How and why IPR provide incentives for investments in knowledge
• Types of IPRs (e.g., patents, trade secrecy, copyrights, trademarks, norm-based intellectual property, scientific publications, open source)
• Optimal design of IPR (e.g., breath and length, exemptions, exclusivity and patenting)
• Cumulative innovation (e.g., role and impact of IPR, building on prior innovation, rights for cumulative research)
• Licensing (e.g., commercialization of IP, collective rights management, compulsory licensing)
• Joint ventures (e.g., in the eye of competition policy, merger and R&D joint ventures)
• Litigation and enforcement of IPR (e.g., reasons for legal disputes, litigation, remedies)
• Private-public partnerships (e.g., university patenting, government innovation, open science)
• Financing and IP (e.g., financing of innovation, IP as financial asset)
• Value of R&D and patents and measurement of innovation

Core reading:

Scotchmer, S. (2004). Innovation and incentives. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Additional literature:

Fisher III, W. W., & Oberholzer-Gee, F. (2013). Strategic management of intellectual property: an integrated approach. California management review, 55(4), 157-183.

More literature to be announced in the syllabus.