Publications

April 2018
Article

Scope versus Speed: Team Diversity, Leader Experience, and Patenting Outcomes for Firms

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Martine R. Haas

How does the organization of patenting activity affect a firm’s patenting outcomes? We investigate how the composition of patenting teams relates to both the scope of their patent applications and the speed of their patent approvals by examining the main effects of... View Details

Keywords: Leader Experience; Micro-foundations Of Innovation; Scope; Speed; Team Diversity; Within-firm Data; Groups and Teams; Diversity; Patents; Leadership; Experience and Expertise; Outcome or Result

February 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

3D Systems

By: Karim R. Lakhani and David Lane

In late 2013, Rajeev Kulkarni needed to decide how best to facilitate the emergence of a broad base of users and content to promote the sale of 3D Systems' consumer-focused 3D printers. As yet, neither the company nor users had identified an indispensable application... View Details

Keywords: 3D Printing; Business Ecosystems; 3D Systems; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Copyright; Two-Sided Platforms; Product Development; Customization and Personalization; Manufacturing Industry

January 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Lawyers & Leases

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Michele Lutz

Profiles Rajath Chaundry, an aspiring entrepreneur, as he attempts to secure office space for his growing team, select a lawyer, and continue to build his fledgling enterprise, eLearning.com. Designed to be used in an entrepreneurial management or small business course... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Ventures; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Property; Management Succession; Leasing; Negotiation; Education Industry; Legal Services Industry

September 1997 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Bayer AG (A)

By: John A. Quelch

Bayer's senior executives convene in Germany to consider submitting a $1 billion bid that would recover the Bayer brand name and trademark cross in North America, both of which were confiscated by the U.S. government after World War I. The group also sets out to assess... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Brands and Branding; War; Communication; Trademarks; Acquisition; Government and Politics; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Germany; North America; United States

06 Dec 2010
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Doing Business in Emerging Markets

late 19th and early 20th centuries. Khanna and Palepu outline how to identify and respond to institutional voids in product, labor, and capital markets. Investors and entrepreneurs can respond to niches in View Details

September 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

X-IT and Kidde (A)

By: Constance E. Bagley and David Lane

Involves a start-up, X-IT Products LLC, whose founders had designed an innovative, lightweight, and easy-to-use--yet strong--escape ladder. After X-IT had filed a patent application for the ladder in the United States, X-IT was approached by Kidde PLC, one of the... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Negotiation Process; Agreements and Arrangements; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry

August 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Barbie: Reviving a Cultural Icon at Mattel

By: Elie Ofek, Ryann Noe and Sarah Mehta

The 2023 release of the live-action film Barbie, and its accompanying marketing blitz, incited a worldwide Barbie craze. Suddenly Barbie was everywhere, a celebrated icon reinstated at the forefront of cultural conversation. This goodwill stood in contrast to... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Media; Intellectual Property; Business Strategy; Entertainment; Gender; Public Opinion; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Retail Industry; United States

05 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 5

facilitating face-to-face interactions can provide information that impacts the formation of scientific collaborations. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-023.pdf Risky Business: The Impact of Property Rights on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

How Corporate Responsibility is Changing in Asia

sneakers. Maria Lin, a partner at the intellectual property law firm of Morgan & Finnegan, worked with Chinese leaders in the early 1980s to develop the country's patent laws and, as a trained scientist,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

September 2024
Case

Barbie: Reviving a Cultural Icon at Mattel (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek, Ryann Noe and Sarah Mehta

The 2023 release of live-action film Barbie, and its accompanying marketing blitz, incited a worldwide Barbie craze. Suddenly Barbie was everywhere, a celebrated icon reinstated at the forefront of cultural conversation. This goodwill stood in contrast to decades of... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Intellectual Property; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Public Opinion; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

September 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Priceline.com v. Microsoft (A)

Describes Priceline's patent of its "reverse auction" pricing mechanism, its discussions with Microsoft regarding Microsoft's license of the patent for its Expedia service, Microsoft's subsequent use of the technology without a license, and Priceline's decision whether... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Patents; Rights; Business or Company Management; Strategy; Software; Information Technology Industry

01 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

A Latin American Vision: New HBS Research Center Opens

Herrero (MBA '76), noted in an opening session in Buenos Aires that the Center is striving to "combine strengths" among different institutions throughout the region and at HBS. Part of its mission, he explained, will be to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2017
Working Paper

The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond

By: Josh Lerner

Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovative activity inside the firm and are increasingly used in corporate finance research. But due to the complexities of patent data collection and the changing spatial and industry composition of innovative... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Analytics and Data Science; Corporate Finance; Research; Problems and Challenges

January 1994 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Aberlyn Capital Management: July 1993

By: Josh Lerner and Peter Tufano

Aberlyn Capital Management, a venture leasing firm specializing in providing capital to biotechnology firms, proposes to introduce a new product. Aberlyn will base a lease on an intangible product: the patent of a biotechnology firm. This poses a series of short and... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Valuation; Product Launch; Problems and Challenges; Patents; Financial Instruments; Financial Services Industry; Biotechnology Industry

July 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

A&M/Octone Records: All Rights or Nothing?

By: Anita Elberse, Elie Ofek and Caren Kelleher

In April 2008, after successfully transitioning Octone Records to Universal Music Group and relaunching the label as A&M/Octone Records, president and CEO James Diener is facing a new challenge. Diener and his executive team have trouble convincing a new, promising... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Intellectual Property; Contracts; Rights; Product Marketing; Product Development; Technology; Music Industry

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49916 Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China By: Fang, Lily, Josh Lerner, and Chaopeng Wu... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

fall 2007
Article

The Design of Patent Pools: The Determinants of Licensing Rules

By: Josh Lerner, Marcin Strojwas and Jean Tirole

Patent pools are an important but little-studied economic institution. In this paper, we first make a set of predictions about the licensing terms associated with patent pools. The theoretical framework predicts that (a) pools consisting of complementary patents are... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Patents; Rights

Read Now

Research Summary

Overview

When information is digitized, it can be aggregated and shared nearly instantly. I am interested in how this acceleration in the aggregation and availability of information, via digitization, affects firms and firm strategy. Platforms have emerged as marketplaces for... View Details

Keywords: Market Platforms; Social Media; Information Disclosure; Platform Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Information; Technology Platform; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

April 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

BitTorrent

Involves the copyright issues associated with Bram Cohen's revolutionary software program BitTorrent, which makes it possible to transfer very large files, such as movies, at a high speed over the Internet. The program, which is available for free over the Internet, is... View Details

Keywords: Lawfulness; Lawsuits and Litigation; Applications and Software; Copyright; Internet and the Web