While companies have traditionally seen Intellectual
Property rights protection as a defensive means to secure
competitive advantages on the technology front, large corporations,
but also more and more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
have realized that IP management goes far beyond the pure
protection of IPRs and aim to utilize their rights
proactively.
Certainly, the question how to generate the highest benefits
from a company's IP portfolio arises mostly after building up a
solid protection base, but IP exploitation can also be an integral
part of the business plan from the outset. IP is a broad concept
and includes many different intangibles (e.g.
patents, copyrights,
trademarks, trade secrets, know-how). However, this article
about technology licensing sets the focus on patents and utility
models.
