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"No genius without copying": how loosening the "tyranny of intellectual property protection” will stimulate innovation

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conference contribution
posted on 2017-04-27, 08:44 authored by Christian Defeo, Jennifer HardingJennifer Harding, Robert Wood
We live in an "open source" era; however, value extraction from innovation is still largely based on an aged model of protecting intellectual property. Firms are reluctant to create new products and services if they are going to be copied quickly. This principle applies across industries ranging from mobile devices to pharmaceuticals. As a counterpoint, and by synthesizing ideas and evidence from across a wide spectrum, this paper argues that a shift in outlook regarding intellectual property may be required to keep up with developments in technology and how markets operate. First, as described by Eric von Hippel, information "spillovers" are increasingly frequent: few trade secrets remain so for very long. Second, the availability of tools such as 3D printers and the Raspberry Pi means that the process of replicating or improving a product has become simpler. Finally, the ubiquity and unruly nature of the internet means that both information spillovers and the availability of advanced tools and knowledge are becoming increasingly prevalent. Under these circumstances, the paper argues that is increasingly difficult to maintain a traditional stance on intellectual property; rather, it is apropos to examine more open models of innovation, such as that of Lyon silk weavers in the 18th century. For example, a leading Lyonnaise silk weaver, Phillipe Lasalle, conducted his trade as if there were "no genius without copying" (Foray, 2006, p.175). This paper also argues that in more a diffuse innovation paradigm, traditional modes of IP enforcement may act as an inhibitor by preventing this "copying" from taking place. Finally, the paper states that value extraction could alternatively be tied to voluntary payments and reliance on product ecosystems instead of IP enforcement.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Pages

80 - 87

Citation

DEFEO, C., HARDING, J.A. and WOOD, R.L., 2017. "No genius without copying": how loosening the "tyranny of intellectual property protection” will stimulate innovation. IN: Lopes, I. and Serrasqueiro, R. (eds). ECIC 2017 Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Intellectual Capital, Lisbon, Portugal, 6th-7th April 2017, pp. 80-87.

Publisher

Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2016-12-18

Publication date

2017

Notes

This is a conference paper. The definitive version is available in ECIC 2017 - Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Intellectual Capital.

ISBN

9781911218302

ISSN

2049-0933

Language

  • en

Location

Lisbon, Portugal

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