Intellectual Property Management in Inter-firm R&D Collaborations

The paper outlines the increasing importance that intellectual property has gained in inter-firm R&D collaborations. Our research is based on an eight months duration benchmarking study with five in-depth case studies as a selection out of 221 global successful practice companies, a nine months duration workshop series with nine multinational companies from different industry sectors and furthermore, almost hundred interviews with intellectual property experts in Europe, the United States of America and Japan. We present a case study of the world?s leading intellectual property champion IBM and identify general success categories and success factors for managing intellectual property in inter-firm R&D collaborations. The paper finally derives knowledge areas as basis for intellectual property rights being relevant to exploit collaboration outcomes sustainingly.