Role of Intellectual Property and Employees in Innovation and Technology Diffusion - Essay Example

Business Role of intellectual property in innovation and technology diffusion Intellectual property mainly consists of the intangible assets of the company, in the form of the competitive advantage that a company enjoys in the market and also a company’s goodwill. The various types of intellectual property protection available to the companies are copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and patents (Maskus, 2000). A copyright is an authentic work by any author that is published or generated in a medium that is tangible in nature. However, a copyright does not provide protection that is of functional feature. There are exclusive rights available for reproducing, modifying and transmitting such authentic works. A copyright is generally held till the author is alive, plus for a span of 70 years. Trade secrets enable companies to establish competitive advantage over its rivals. This is done by ensuring the development of a protected plan. The plan may include information in various forms such as a unique process, innovative pattern, programs, enhanced techniques etc... Efforts are taken to maintain the plan with secrecy. Trade secrets may be held jointly. A trademark is a unique identity of a company in the form of a logo or the brand name that differentiates it from other companies in the market. Goodwill of the company is protected with the help of a trademark. Trademark is protected by fulfilling the requirements of registration which must emphasize on the fact that goods and services are distinguished from one another. The trademark should be reviewed and must not come into clash with other listed trademark (Maskus, 2000). Patents on the other hand help to protect the aspects and techniques of business operations. Inventors are benefitted for their work. Patents help to protect an invention by the help of exclusive rights granted by the government which enables excluding others for a certain period of time. Ideas can be disclosed publically with the help of patents. It is a form of legal monopoly that a company enjoys through patent rights (Park and Ginarte, 1997). Intellectual property includes all the above types, and plays a vital role in the technological development. It helps to enhance knowledge in all technological operations and processes. Intellectual capital is enhanced and protected legally. There is a fear of losing intellectual property when the competitors try to imitate or infringe the unique operations and the intellectual assets of the company. Intellectual property is protected in many ways. It includes ways by which a company takes measures to protect products in such a way that the competitors fail to imitate them. This ensures that the company continues enjoying competitive advantage in the product market. Innovation is intensively encouraged within the company. Intellectual property requires protection in legal form with the help of trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and patents (Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella, 2001). Intellectual property plays a major role in enhancing business productivity that would ensure economic growth in the long run. This is done by focusing on innovation and technology diffusion. In sectors where investment in technology generates return that involves long term association, substantial risk and can be easily imitated, requires strong protection of intellectual property. This would help the companies to effectively protect intellectual assets and encourage them to take initiative to invest in advanced technology. Intellectual property protection provides impetus for growth of intellectual assets and innovation. Companies have been skeptical about intellectual property rights as they feared that such rights would enable and increase scope for unfair means by which information would be appropriated for business operations. However, the advantages of intellectual property rights outweigh its drawbacks. If intellectual property rights are used appropriately, it would help in dissemination of important news and information that would enhance knowledge. It would also ensure that the companies develop its own techniques of building competitive advantage over its rivals. Competition will prevail continuously if the market provides scope for intellectual property rights (Bekkers, Duysters and Verspagen, 2002). Information can be disseminated effectively for enabling technology diffusion by the help of simultaneous projects concerning intellectual property. These projects have to be linked for avoiding imitation. Economic growth can be enhanced through innovation which would be ensured by basic intellectual property protection in the form of copyright, design rights, trade secrets, trademarks and patents. The government has to be involved in the process for the requirements related to approval of regulations. Advancement and modification in information technology is vital for further enhancement and innovation in technology. Information technology heavily relies on development and innovation in software technology for which patents and copyrights are required (Lionel and Brad, 2001). With the advancement in technology, there have been dramatic changes in the environment for protection of intellectual property. These changes are more significantly due to the various trade agreements with the World Trade Organization (WTO). Some nations have effectively enforced intellectual property rights and others are lagging behind. For improvement in the investment scenario in a nation, it is imperative to encourage intellectual property right. This would help in economic development indirectly (Correa, 2000). It becomes essential to implement the minimum level of protection for intellectual property all over the world and specifically in the developing countries as they require maintaining certain legal policies for establishing trade agreements. The trade agreements have to be modified with the passage of time and advancement in technology. There is also a need to understand various multiple sectors of business and identify opportunities for further enhancement in technology (Schneider, 2005). Public Research Organizations (PROs) can effectively create awareness about innovation with the help of patents and how knowledge can be spread for ensuring diffusion of technology. Research activities should be encouraged and this can be done by capitalizing on the intellectual assets. There is a significant impact of intellectual property on invention and diffusion of advanced technology. This ensures a sustaining performance of the economy. Various concepts like patent pools have been developed which enhances and smoothens the process of transfer of technology. Innovation is continuously fostered by adoption of legal policies, managing costs, examining patent operations and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Thus, it is noticed that intellectual property has played a pivotal role in generating technical scope that eventually helped in innovation and technology diffusion (Drahos and Mayne, 2002). Appropriate technology and role of employees in innovation It has often been stated that an organization can experience success in the long term by ensuring smooth business operations if it involves its employees to reflect the company’s innovation process by the employment of suitable technology. With the increasing competition in the market, it becomes imperative for the organizations to encourage innovations in the development of products and services by using appropriate technology. Innovation should be carried in a cost efficient manner. Technology has always been considered as a driving force for innovation. Innovation in products and services not only helps the company to differentiate its product from its competitors but also drives efficiency within the organization. This efficiency would be enhanced and ensure sustaining growth of the organization if the employees are involved in the innovation process and the company’s reputation for the long term growth gets recognized as a part of the employees performance (Gassmann, 2006). Sometimes even exceptional technologies cannot ensure innovation in products and services. It is vital to understand organizational goals and objective while strategizing about business undertakings. There is also a need to identify the role that the innovative process is going to play in the long term profitability growth of the company. This process of understanding the organizational objectives can be done by involving the employees. Employees can be motivated so as to make them efficient and how they can contribute to that over the process. This can not only influence growth of the company but also ensure growth in employee’s performance. Employees value the growth of their skills and efficiencies and involving them in the innovation process would motivate them to perform better. This would eventually serve as beneficial for the company and help it to increase productivity. The employees should understand the implications of the organizational vision so as to sync their capabilities with the requirement of the organization (Rigby and Zook, 2002). It can be seen that the identification of the appropriate technology that is feasible and compatible with a company’s policies must be selected for adapting innovative methods. The process of innovation should emphasize on the nature of business operation that is carried by the organization and adopt the techniques accordingly. The entire process may be carried in various stages and by different level of employees. The process of innovation comprises of various manifestation. Innovation can be brought about by modifying technological characteristics of products and services. While in some cases, innovation requires a change in the entire business model. The entire process should be carried out with the support from the employees at different level. Innovation at the incremental level would require minor involvement by employees, wherein few changes in the existing technologies followed by the company, would enhance productivity of the company (Robertson, 1967). Employees would be intensively involved in case breakthrough innovations have to be carried out. Substantial growth would be experienced over time by making significant evolution in the models that govern business activities. In some cases, companies require radical innovation for establishing growth that would be exponential in nature over time. This requires the involvement of the top level employees who are specialized in carrying such operations (Rigby and Zook, 2002). The corporate culture is getting accustomed to innovations for surviving in this highly competitive environment. Innovation can be integrated with the business processes of the company by identifying appropriate techniques. It also becomes imperative to recognize the role of employees who are directly associated with any growth and are responsible for the activities within an organization (Galanakis, 2006). It can be seen that with the advent of time, there is a change in expectations of the employees. This change is more significantly evident in the younger generation. The employees are guided by personal motivation. This has forced them to adjust in highly competitive environment and ensured that they deliver performance whenever required. These employees expect transparency and flexibility in business processes. They value work ethics and are constantly guided by the organizational goals. A flatter organizational structure ensures that the opinions of the employees get considered in the decision making process. Thus, it is necessary that the employees are enabled to fulfill their expectation by involving them in the process of innovation and recognizing their contribution towards the success of the organization (Lockwood, 2007). Innovations in business operations in most companies are mainly carried out by the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Such an executive not only concentrates on the technological undertakings within an organization but also other functional areas of the business. They are however mainly appointed for ensuring strategic growth in a company by encouraging innovative developments in business operations. They work in coordination with the employees at various levels and maintain cooperation among the concerned team (Von Krogh, Ichijo and Nonaka, 2000). The company faces various challenges in the process of innovation. A major challenge for the company is to keep pace with the latest developments in technology. A company would lose its competitive advantage if it is not regularly updated with the new technologies in the market. In such circumstances, it becomes essential that the company has skilled employees at its service that could continuously monitor the latest developments in technologies. Thus, it is important to enable employees to capture the reputation of the company during the process of innovation. However, it is also important to value customer needs and requirements that are fulfilled in the process of innovation which eventually leads to success of the company. The consumers prefer innovative products and services and thus the companies are forced to adopt innovative techniques. Nonetheless, the broader picture suggests that it is rational for a company to implement technology that best suits the company and also enable employees to be a part of the innovation process that ensure growth of the organization (Tucker, 2002). Reference List Arora, A., Fosfuri, A. and Gambardella, A., 2001. Markets for technology: The economics of innovation and corporate strategy. MA: MIT press. Bekkers, R., Duysters, G. and Verspagen, B., 2002. Intellectual property rights, strategic technology agreements and market structure: The case of GSM. Research Policy, 31(7), pp. 1141-1161. Correa, C. M., 2000. Intellectual property rights, the WTO and developing countries: the TRIPS agreement and policy options. London: Zed books. Drahos, P. and Mayne, R., 2002. Global intellectual property rights: knowledge, access and development. New York: Palgrave MacMillian. Galanakis, K., 2006. Innovation process. Make sense using systems thinking. Technovation, 26(11), pp. 1222-1232. Gassmann, O., 2006. Opening up the innovation process: towards an agenda. R&d Management, 36(3), pp. 223-228. Lionel, B. and Brad, S., 2001. Intellectual property law. New York: Oxford University Press. Lockwood, N. R., 2007. Leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage. 2007 SHRM Research Quarterly, 52(3), pp. 1-12. Maskus, K. E., 2000. Intellectual property rights in the global economy. Washington: Peterson Institute. Park, W. G. and Ginarte, J. C., 1997. Intellectual property rights and economic growth. 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