From Traditional Intellectual Property to Profitable Intellectual Capital Management

Effective R&D is strategic but also expensive, costing money both to develop products and to protect and defend them. Given that only a small percentage of patents are employed to support strategic growth objectives, R&D is also not very productive. The rest serve, in the best case, as asset valorisation instruments or as weapons to defend against competitive action. In this context, it is normal for intellectual property to be considered as "property", something that can be traded, and not necessarily as potential capital. With the 21st-century emphasis on knowledge sharing, partnering and "win-win" approaches, this mind-set needs to change.