Corporate Innovation Engines: Tools and Processes

Abstract

Inventiveness is one of the most important human traits present in the history of human race. Companies and their respective legal entities have created the context in which several individual acts of invention should be streamlined into common purpose, individual, group, and company benefit. Therefore, in modern terms, we talk about innovation as a process which follows an IP lifecycle. Corporations rely upon IP artifacts (patents, copyrights, trade & service marks, trade secrets) to protect and restrict competition relative to their investments in products, services, processes, and facilities. In this paper we introduce: 1. the subject of corporate innovation and describe the organization 2. processes behind corporate innovation activities and 3. the conceptual architecture of the corporate innovation management system. Then, we will briefly describe the practical aspects of IP exploitation and discuss overall benefits in section four and close with our outlook and future challenges for IP management.