Publications

April 2015 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: February 2015

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Resource Allocation; Investment; Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Property; Private Equity

March 2010 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Sheila Mason & Craig Shepherd (Abridged)

The case describes two individuals who have met and are in the process of starting a company together. Each is still at his/her former employer, and each has signed a different employment agreement that, on paper, may prohibit some of the contemplated acts—i.e.,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Resignation and Termination; Intellectual Property; Law; Agreements and Arrangements

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

philosophy are flawed? What if intellectual capital rather than financial capital was the scarce resource, as it is in many companies today? Unlike financial resources, an... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

innovation. PDF not available. Intellectual Property Rights, Imitation, and Foreign Direct Investment: Theory and Evidence Authors:Lee... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jul 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Developing a Strategy for Digital Convergence

about capturing value through intellectual property regimes, standards, and technology platforms. Digital convergence takes center stage in the final module. Convergence... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer; Education

June 2015
Article

Standard-Essential Patents

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

A major policy issue in standard setting is that patents that are ex-ante not that important may, by being included into the standard, become standard-essential patents (SEPs). In an attempt to curb the monopoly power that they create, most standard-setting... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Policy; Standards

Find at Harvard

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

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

01 Dec 2015
First Look

December 1, 2015

frequently observed when a corporation is entering into a new foreign region for innovative work, especially in settings where intellectual property protection is weak. We also connect collaborative patents... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2017
Case

Give Us a 'C'! Killing Knock-offs with Copyright?

By: Lena G. Goldberg

Varsity Brands, the leading manufacturer of cheerleading uniforms in the United States, obtained copyright protection for certain designs of stripes, chevrons, color blocks and lines on cheerleading uniforms. Star Athletica, a newcomer in the field, used those designs... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Law; Lawsuits and Litigation; Design; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

at a large investment firm relative to those of sell-side analysts from mid-1997 to 2004. We find that the buy-side firm's analysts issue less optimistic recommendations for stocks with larger market View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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

30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

uncertainty, and macroeconomic shocks affect the risk properties of U.S. Treasury bonds? The exposure of U.S. Treasury bonds to the stock market has moved considerably over time. While it was slightly... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

the index provider business model through the lenses of this transaction: sources of revenue and profitability, business valuation, uses of indexes in the money management industry, types of indexes, View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Recycle & Re-Match: The Future of Soccer Turfs

By: George Serafeim, Lena Duchene and Carlota Moniz

By August 2023, Re-Match, an artificial turf waste-to-value company, had operations in Denmark and the Netherlands and had recycled over 160,000 tons of waste and plastic fiber. With recent capital injection from the VC firm Verdane and a dual revenue business model,... View Details