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Ingham, Marc; Ayerbe, Cecile; Métais, Emmanuel --- "Increasing Internal Value from Patents: The Role of Organizational Arrangements" [2009] ELECD 488; in Castle, David (ed), "The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Innovation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Innovation

Editor(s): Castle, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847209801

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Increasing Internal Value from Patents: The Role of Organizational Arrangements

Author(s): Ingham, Marc; Ayerbe, Cecile; Métais, Emmanuel

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

7. Increasing internal value from
patents: the role of organizational
arrangements
Marc Ingham, Cecile Ayerbe,
Emmanuel Métais and Liliana Mitkova

INTRODUCTION

This chapter explores how organizational contexts are conducive to inter-
nally enhancing and exploiting the value of patents. Internal exploitation
is adopted for patents that are part of the `strategic businesses'; the main
objective is to keep under control both the invention and the markets. This
chapter addresses the following questions: why and when are these organi-
zational arrangements adopted at each stage of the patenting process and
what are their characteristics? To investigate these questions, the literature
on organizational configurations dedicated to patenting is reviewed. The
methodological approach consists in a case study of Air Liquide, a large
French industrial group.1
Two main characteristics of the organizational context are of para-
mount importance to increase the internal value drawn from the patent
portfolio, the involvement of actors from different functions in the pat-
enting process, and the use of information technology. These `platforms'
enable one to create a context that is conducive to knowledge sharing
and creation. The literature on organizational learning and knowledge
creation is then used to interpret the case presented in this chapter.


BACKGROUND

The flourishing literature on patents in the fields of economics, law and
management rarely investigates how companies develop and use organi-
zational arrangements to increase intra-organizational value from their
portfolio of patents.2 Nevertheless, organizational contexts are of para-
mount importance to improve the efficiency in the management ...