Innovation, Competition and Collaboration

  Edited by Dana Beldiman As innovation processes become increasingly collaborative, new relationships among players in the innovation space emerge. These developments demand new legal structures that allow horizontally integrated, open and shared use of intellectual property (IP). This book examines the fundamental issues regarding the collaborative use of IP and discusses emerging trends including: the interpretation of FRAND terms in the context of standard essential patents; secondary liability of technology providers; contractual arrangements in trademark law, and the treatment of IP issues in specific emerging industries.     Chapter 1: Coopetition: the role of IPRs                                            Download Pdf by Gustavo Ghidini and Andrea Stazi Extract More and more typically, collaboration between competitors (hence: coopetition) is the way of creating innovation, and doing business at large, in a contemporary economic scenario which increasingly requires that both R & D and production of goods and services be based on multiple technological contributions. Coopetition is an expression of contractual freedom, a functional profile of the ‘freedom to conduct business’ as per Article 16 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU), which translates into the right to choose if, when, how, and with whom to cooperate for entrepreneurial purposes and projects. In particular, such collaboration is pursued in order to create ‘value networks’that: achieve lower costs and higher research and development (R & D); develop and expand markets; address major technological challenges; comply with new regulations; and develop new industry standards. The philosophy of sharing as a prerequisite for the achievement of more advanced efficient industrial models stretches well beyond the field of information technologies and those lato sensu related to communications, which we usually think of in terms of network industries. That philosophy indeed permeates also more traditional sectors, in which industries have established – ‘silently’, in order not to tarnish the image of ‘uniqueness’ of products – production models largely based on projects developed in common, where the distinctive/competitive function is primarily entrusted to differentiation in design, trademarks, marketing policies, and so on.