Publications

16 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Resolving Patent Disputes that Impede Innovation

Land Rover, for instance, while the Universal Serial Bus (USB) helps standardize the connection of countless computer peripherals. Intellectual property owners often strive to have their patents included in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Legal Services

January 1991 (Revised January 1992)
Supplement

IBM-Fujitsu Settlement

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Describes the decision by the arbitrators chosen to resolve the intellectual property dispute between IBM and Fujitsu. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Intellectual Property; Business or Company Management; Conflict Management

August 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

DexAI

By: Jo Tango and Christina Wallace

During a challenging fundraising environment, the DexAI founders received two term sheets with nearly identical economic terms but very different legal ones. The entrepreneurs had to navigate: representations and warranties (their personal guarantees that the company's... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital Term Sheet; Term Sheet; Term Sheets; Founders; Legal Aspects Of Business; Seed Financing; Founders' Agreements; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Intellectual Property; Entrepreneurial Finance; Contracts; Business Startups; Agreements and Arrangements

22 Jul 2013
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Meeting Management Challenges in India

data, branding, intellectual property protection, and creating a new-product category. India's Ambitious National Identification Program The Unique Identification Authority of India has been charged with... View Details

Keywords: Re: Tarun Khanna & Rohit Deshpande

March 1990 (Revised October 1994)
Case

IBM-Fujitsu Dispute

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Describes a dispute between IBM and Fujitsu over allegations that Fujitsu stole proprietary IBM software for controlling mainframe computers. Also describes a novel arbitration agreement intended to resolve the dispute, an overview of intellectual property law in the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Ethics; Intellectual Property; Law; Negotiation Process; Relationships; Software; Information Technology Industry

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

August 3, 2022
Article

Why NFT Creators Are Going cc0

By: and Scott Duke Kominers Flashrekt

Strategies for building brands, communities, and content through intellectual property (IP) vary greatly across NFT projects. Some maintain more or less standard IP protections; others give just NFT owners rights to innovate upon the associated intellectual property;... View Details

Keywords: Non-fungible Tokens; NFTs; Video Games; Merchandising; Creative Commons; Intellectual Property

Read Now

October 1999
Case

Intel Labs (B): A New Business Model for Commercializing Research in Photolithography

Intel deployed a creative business model to commercialize its EUV technology in photolithography. This model assigned intellectual property and machine priority in an industry consortium. View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Operations; Research and Development

July 2000
Case

Patent & License Exchange, The: Enabling a Global IP Marketplace

The Patent & License Exchange (pl-x) is a start-up company seeking to create a market for intellectual property over the Web. The company has targeted the United States as its initial market and has developed its services and processes for the United States. Now it is... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Globalized Markets and Industries; Service Industry; Japan; United States

January 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Ganeden Biotech, Inc.

By: Robert C. Pozen, Dale Alan Winger and Matthew Kenneth Ahlers

The CEO of Ganeden Biotech, a small firm with several viable probiotic products but limited resources, must decide what markets to invest in and what intellectual property strategies will best serve its immediate and longer-term business interests. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment; Intellectual Property; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Biotechnology Industry

24 Sep 2012
News

With Smartphone Deals, Patents Become a New Asset Class

11 Sep 2020
HBS Seminar

Janet Freilich, Fordham University, School of Law

05 Dec 2013
News

Encourage Breakthrough Health Care by Competing on Products Rather Than Patents

29 Mar 2012
News

Apple's War on Android

Article

Finding Lost Profits: An Equilibrium Analysis of Patent Infringement Damages

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

We discuss how a seller can appropriate rents when selling knowledge that lacks legal property rights by solving either an expropriation or a valuation problem and then analyze how seller rents increase when a portion of the intellectual property (IP) can be protected.... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Patents; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Knowledge; Rights; Strategy; Valuation; Problems and Challenges

Read Now

January 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Edwin W. Parkinson III

Molecular Insight has developed a novel biopharmaceutical to detect heart attacks. The company's unique approach to intellectual property protection uses the Hatch Waxman Act and the Orphan Drug Act. The company is struggling to raise $7 million in Series B financing.... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry

29 Aug 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Patent Trolls

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun & Scott Duke Kominers

Dafna Bearson

Dafna Bearson is a doctoral candidate in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research interests lie at the intersection of strategy and innovation. Specifically, her research focuses on intellectual property commercialization strategy in startups... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; pharmaceuticals; high technology

September 2007 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Commercializing an MRI Breakthrough

The challenges and best strategies for the commercialization of university technologies are illustrated in this case which documents an MRI breakthrough that arose from the Charles Marcus laboratory at Harvard. Students discuss the interdependencies of intellectual... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Higher Education; Patents; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Commercialization