Mutuality of Intellectual Property Protection with Standards Development and Use: An Innovation Systems Perspective

The paper argues that both the development of standards within consensus and rule based organizations and the methods used for the protection of intellectual property have pervasive and interacting, and sometimes possibly harmful, influences throughout innovation systems; both are moreover highly relevant for business strategies based upon open innovation. Using the UK Innovation Surveys and specially constructed data on the standards environment confronting firms, we illumine the importance of the standards for innovation and forward looking innovation commitments, as well as for firm’s decisions regarding methods of intellectual property protection. We find that cooperating firms particularly value the information content of standards. We supplement these findings with direct survey based evidence regarding not only the use of standards but also the motivations for participation in standard setting organizations. The surveys reported confirmed the widespread use of standards in research and services as well as manufacturing. Both IPR and participation development were frequently seen as strategically important. Motivation for participation included the ability to influence future standards and obtaining valuable information about the trajectories for technologies and markets. While IPR issues do sometimes conflict with standards setting processes, the evidence does not suggest that delay and other issues are a widespread problem in standard setting