Managing intellectual property: a strategic point of view

In the new knowledge economy, intellectual property has become an important strategic issue. However, in many firms, the management of intellectual property (IP) is still divorced from business strategy. People still think that “managing IP strategically” means having an IP strategy rather than managing IP according to business strategy. We argue that intellectual property is strategic only to the extent that it links to the firm’s core capabilities and that not all intellectual property is core to business strategy. We present a model for identifying the function of intellectual property in a firm’s business strategy and present specific recommendations for protecting, valuing and generating IP from a strategic point of view.