Intellectual Property Strategy for the Ecosystem of the Internet of Things

本論文探討台灣企業的物聯網生態系的智財策略，並以問卷及物聯網企業高階主管的訪談互相印證所探討的內容。本研究的貢獻在於將複供給(multi-supply)的觀點增加到複發明(multi-invention)的背景之中, 將生態系的理論引進物聯網的智財策略，並主張物聯網企業獲利的基礎正自單一家公司轉移到整個生態系之上，因此物聯網的智財策略需要憑藉這個趨勢，將智財策略與物聯網生態系連結，善用多重智財的保護，整合智財策略及產業解方，並小心控制訴訟觸發點(litigation trigger point)。這些策略將有效協助物聯網企業擬訂實用的智財策略。This paper explored the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem and the intellectual property (IP) strategies of Taiwanese firms. A questionnaire survey and interviews with high-ranking managers of IoT firms offered insight in this study. Our contribution is adding the multi-supply context to the multi-invention context, introducing the ecosystem to the formulation of the IoT IP strategy, and the argument that the profitability of IoT firms is shifting from the individual firm basis to the entire ecosystem basis. It is argued that IoT IP strategies must support this trend and consider aligning IP strategy with the IoT ecosystem, utilizing multi-IP protection, integrating IP strategy with industry solutions and monitoring the litigation trigger point. These resultant strategies will prove helpful to IoT firms in formulating a practical IP strategy.1 Introduction 1 2 Literature Review 2 2.1 IP Strategy 2 2.2 IP Policy of IoT Alliances 5 2.3 IoT Ecosystem, Platforms, and Multi-invention Context 10 2.4 Dynamic capability 11 2.5 Business Model and Business Model Innovation 12 3 Industrial Background - the Internet of Things (IoT) 14 3.1 The IoT Structure 14 3.2 The IoT definitions 17 3.3 The IoT Organizations 19 3.4 The IoT Platforms 20 3.5 The semiconductor heterogeneous integration and the IoT 22 4 Research Method 24 4.1 Identification of the IoT firms 25 4.2 Questionnaire Survey 26 4.3 Interviews 35 4.3.1 Interview companies 35 4.3.2 Interview data structure 36 5 Findings and discussions 38 5.1 IoT multi-invention and multi-supply contexts 38 5.2 Defensive patent strategy is preferred over offensive strategy 40 5.3 Integration of IP protection methods 42 5.4 IoT alliances and/or cross-licensing 43 6 IP strategy for IoT firms 45 6.1 IP strategy aligned with the multi-invention and multi-supply of the IoT ecosystem 45 6.2 Multiple IP protection 45 6.3 Seeking for mutual lock-in 46 6.4 Monitoring the litigation trigger-point 47 6.5 New IP development for innovative products − User experience and semi-conductor heterogeneous integration 48 6.6 Budget plan for IP roadmap 49 6.7 Business model and dynamic capabilities for the IoT industry 50 6.8 Summary for the IoT IP strategy 51 7 Conclusion and suggestions 53 7.1 The IoT industry is changing the IP landscape 53 7.2 Designing new business models and solutions 53 7.3 Little examples of IP strategy to follow 54 7.4 Weak is strong, strong is weak in the multi-supply environment 55 7.5 Future studies 55 Appendix A First group of questions 57 Appendix B Questions of Multiple Choices 58 References 5