Towards Strategic Intellectual Property Management - Events During the Development: Evidence from Biotech SMEs

In the emergence of a pro-patent and intellectual capital era the management of intellectual property (IP) is currently undergoing major changes. IP management systems are becoming increasingly complex and strategic in handling an integrated portfolio of IPRs and intellectual assets rather than just "administrating" patents, trademarks and copyrights as single, independent assets in an operational management way. Our paper analyses the development of IP management in a sample of German and Swedish dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) with the main focus on the following two research questions: (1) Which events trigger the development towards a more strategically oriented IP management? (2) Can distinctive stages be identified and characterised in the development of IP management systems? The empirical part of our study draws primarily on 12 personal interviews with leading managers from six larger German and Swedish dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) with \´rich experience\´ in IP management that were founded between 1984 and 1997. During our study we found that shifts towards an advanced IP management were triggered by single crucial events (e.g. litigation) or an accumulated sum of incremental events, of either internal or external nature. Up to four different stages of IP management were found throughout the development of the case companies, while six criteria were identified that can be applied to characterize an IP management stage