Publications

April 2006
Background Note

Legal Aspects of Management: Increasing and Capturing the Value of Knowledge Assets

Describes the third module of the Harvard Business School MBA second-year elective course Legal Aspects of Management. This module deals with the way in which intellectual property rights--as protected by patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets--enable firms... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Patents; Competitive Advantage; Trademarks; Copyright

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September 1996 (Revised December 2000)
Background Note

Protection of Intellectual Property in the United States, The

By: Myra M. Hart and Howard G. Zaharoff

Presents an overview of U.S. laws/systems in place to safeguard intellectual property rights. Includes a brief history of the development of the laws. Attention is given to patents, licenses, copyrights, trade secrets, trade and service markets, and non-disclosure and... View Details

Keywords: Trademarks; Patents; Copyright; Laws and Statutes; Agreements and Arrangements; United States

January 2018 (Revised February 2023)
Teaching Note

The Future of Patent Examination at the USPTO

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury

This teaching note pairs with the case entitled: “The Future of Patent Examination at the USPTO” (case no. 617-027). View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Telework; Collaborating With Unions; Recruitment; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Trademarks; Knowledge Sharing; Technology Adoption; District of Columbia

14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

primary task of these great service leaders is that of building organizations such as Omnicom and Progressive that are good at learning, innovating, and adapting. Reprinted by permission of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Excerpted from What Great Service Leaders Know... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

July 2017
Article

Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China

By: Lily Fang, Josh Lerner and Chaopeng Wu

Using a difference-in-difference approach, we study how intellectual property right (IPR) protection affects innovation in China in the years around the privatizations of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Innovation increases after SOE privatizations, and this increase... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Privatization; State Ownership; Trademarks; Copyright; Innovation and Invention; China

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31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51099 May 2016 American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings Copyright Infringement in the Market for Digital Images By: Luo, Hong, and Julie Holland Mortimer Abstract—Digital technologies... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

Universal Desire for More Equal Pay" by Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton, copyright 2014, Perspectives on Psychological Science "Executive Paywatch: High-paid CEOs and the Low-Wage Economy," View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

17 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Protecting against the Pirates of Bollywood

Mumbai, and an ongoing investigation of the transfer of land from agricultural to industrial use in China. Pirates On The Horizon There are two primary types of IP theft for copyright industries, which include movies, music, books, and... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Motion Pictures & Video

2015
Working Paper

Lost in the Clouds: The Impact of Changing Property Rights on Investment in Cloud Computing Ventures

By: Josh Lerner and Greg Rafert

Our analysis seeks to understand the impact of changing allocations of property rights on investment in new firms. We focus on the Cartoon Network, et al. v. Cablevision decision in the U.S., which narrowed the protection enjoyed by content creators (e.g., movie... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Venture Capital; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Copyright

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June 2002 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Pokemon: Gotta Catch 'Em All (Abridged)

By: Youngme E. Moon

Pokemon, the colloquial name given to a collection of 150 fantastic, animal-inspired creatures with organic powers and the capacity to evolve, are the stars of video games, trading card games, and TV cartoons. Conceived in Japan in 1996, Pokemon quickly became that... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Age; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Copyright; Video Game Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Japan; Asia; United States

April 2017
Case

The Future of Patent Examination at the USPTO

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Sarah Mehta

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal government agency responsible for evaluating and granting patents and trademarks. In 2015, the USPTO employed approximately 8,000 patent examiners who granted nearly 300,000 patents to inventors. As of April... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Telework; Collaborating With Unions; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Trademarks; Knowledge Sharing; Technology Adoption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; District of Columbia

May 2021
Case

Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull

Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health... View Details