Over the last decade, the once-obscure concept of intellectual property
has become famous. It is now a frequent subject of articles in the general
business press, conferences and new books. It is a pet topic of investor-
and media-relations groups. Perhaps the main forces behind its ascent to fame
were the ongoing growth of the software and entertainment industries (which
basically sell intellectual property) and their reaction to what they call
piracy, i.e. copying programs, musical performances and films without copyrights.
The rise and fall of Napster - an Internet-based system of sharing music -
generated attention far beyond the community of lawyers and inventors usually
involved in patent and copyright disputes.
Intellectual property's renown has not stopped at the boundaries of software
and entertainment; it has spread to other sectors, including chemicals (which
basically sells tangible products). From the spate of popular coverage, two
main messages emerge about intellectual property in the chemicals industry:
it is more important than ever, and it has been ignored. Intellectual property
is a buried treasure, just waiting to be uncovered.
Not so fast, we say. Chemical companies have a long, rich relationship with
intellectual property - usually thought of and spoken of as process technology
that is protected by patents, secrecy or both. As this study shows, its importance
to and understanding by the industry are very high and very old, older than
the software and entertainment industries themselves. Treasure, yes, but buried,
no.
Still, there are new developments in intellectual property - namely with respect
to its external value - that commercial and research managers of chemical
companies should be aware of:
