Potential for Intellectual Property Protection - Coursework Example

Author’s Name Professor’s Name: Course Name: Due Date: Outline: Introductory Summary for Concept Demand Potentiality Competitive strength Boundary and Establishment Risks Business Model Commercial feasibility FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS Introductory Summary for Concept Let us think of any position in which you as the customer need an extra service from a company that is attending to your needs. First, this is exceedingly common, and most people have experienced this at one time or another. In the services world that entails consumers and producers, there is always room for improvement. An extra step can be taken to enhance the experience of a customer. Companies look for this hook. This is how they make sure people keep coming back for the same service. Of course, this is elementary is marketing as people are fickle and migrate to another source if the services are better on the other side. Thus, the thing to do for a company would be to look for such a position, in which the customer would need an extra service. This would act as an extra weak point of vulnerability to exploit from the customers so that they keep coming back. Otherwise, they will start to get bored. It is just human nature such that one will start to hear familiar things. Something likes ‘the company is starting to lose its creativity, or they are just not giving me what I want.’ This is natural, and when everyone else in the business wants to steal your share of the market, it is just fair competition because the customer is spoilt for choice. The thing to win them over in the best-case scenario would be to try and decrease the prices of the goods or services as that is the most common strategy used by companies that have run out of hooks to hold on to their customers. Of course, this is not seemly for business in the long run, but it gives results in a remarkably short time, in most cases. The business idea illustrated in this paper depends a lot on the potentiality of the market demand. The process of evaluating the market demand may be quite difficult in most cases, because it involves understanding the market psychology of the customers, which tends to be highly unpredictable. Contrary to what many people think, it is not about forecasting the sales of the company but rather about getting to know the vast picture of what forces drive the market and so on (English and Moate, 2009). This way one can learn if the market is increasing or decreasing, which entails the main idea. Now imagine if you were a customer on an airline and you had problems with your luggage most times that you travel using the airline. For one, you always have to come hours earlier in advance because one has to account for the time taken to transport the luggage from the starting point all the way to the airport. This is because there fixed variable is the departure time and so the passenger has to make it on time. This causes a lot of stress in passengers and most of the time they opt to clear a whole schedule to move things around. Instead of this happening, the airline can open a service such that the customer’s belongings and luggage can be taken to the airport in advance. The airport can pick up their luggage from their house or wherever and take it to the airport to await them. At the same time, they can take their luggage to their destination from the airport once they land. This will save the customer from endless inconveniences of transportation issues for their cumbersome luggage. It will also reduce cases of theft that can happen if the customer is left to fend for their goods sometimes-unfamiliar territory. Potential for intellectual property protection There are many quotes said in history about the discovery of concepts. For example, Cukier (2005, pp.1) suggests that the granting of patents to people who discover highly viable information or material inflames cupidity. It thus stimulates the creator to run after schemes and projects that will ensure the public keeps paying them a service tax for the goods. This provokes disputes on what is owed most of the time. This provokes an endless tirade of lawsuits if both parties are not careful. In the past, patents were considered as unavoidable because of their nature to cause some turmoil. However, recently they are getting more attention because this is the age of ideas. Thus, they have become the most valuable resource replacing land and energy. In fact, about three quarters of the value of leading public companies come from intangible assets. Thus if, this is applied to the airline situation, there are a number of precautions that need to be taken care of in that case. If you were to approach the airlines with this idea, and a solid project proposal there some things that could go wrong. For starters, it is a fact that the number of patent applications have doubled in the past decade. Thus, most patent offices are left to struggle to keep things in order because some of them may not be valid and others may not be taken seriously. The legal system accounts for the intellectual property system process in four areas. These are the copyrights, which are used to protect the musical and artistic or works in literature (World Intellectual Property Organization 2011, pp.2). Next are the patents, which are used to protect inventions and ideas. Then trademarks used for company brands. The last are the trade secrets, which are not well defined and are used for practices that are confidential. This protection rights are essential to protect against copiers and the counterfeiters. In fact, this service has become increasingly available, and even universities are applying the use of the service. The classification according to any of these fields may not be fitting of the idea except of invention maybe. Thus, it may be problematic when it comes to defining it to a patent office in terms of definition between trademark and invention. There are other risks also like the possibility of litigation issues with other parties claiming ownership on the idea. The other issue is disagreements with the administrative departments of companies over the payment plan the offer for the idea, or even the amount offered in the first place. Demand Potentiality As defined, earlier the potentiality of the demand is quite crucial to the survival of the idea in the market. It does not rely on the predictions of the market conditions in the future, as many people think. It focuses on the behavior of people and their mood so that it is able to read their feelings on certain products in the market. This way it is able to predict their behavior and forecast which direction, they will go before they make the decision. It is also about painting a picture that will show the factors the maneuver the demand (English and Moate, 2009). It gives a picture of the size of the potential market and for changes in the future. This will determine whether the trend in demand will increase or whether it will decrease with time or whether it is unstable or stable enough to be a long-term concept that can be applied in the market. When applying the new idea to this concept, it would seem that the airline idea has a lot of potentiality in the market for demand. One just has to conduct a survey because the results would be quite predictable. The size for such a market encompassing all airlines for first, business and the gold members and the disabled is quite massive. Therefore, the probability of the market disappearing would coincide with that of less and less customers using air for a means of travel and so the market is not going to diminish any time soon. In fact, if the service does not cause such a significant increase in service fees, it may actually attract more passengers. Thus, the trend is quite solid for an increase in customers until a certain point of course where it would level off and then take direction according to the economic conditions of the globe. The extent to which the market is viable is incredibly powerful when one is looking for the potential of the demand into sales. This affects the way the idea will be adopted and the rate at which the market is going to be penetrated. For example, there are options considered why it will accept or reject an idea. The product needs to fulfill a number of requirements like satisfy a basic need. It also needs to be quite understandable such that the benefits are applicable to their daily life. It also needs to be compatibility of their attitudes and their current perceptions of the market. The product needs to be simple enough for customers to use it for their own purposes such that it should not be too complex. Then the worry for many companies is that will the service or product be too difficult or costly to distribute all over their market base and transfer to other branch headquarters. Thus, this should be translated to the idea. English and Moate (2009) suggest if the idea would be too complex for a normal customer to utilize, or will the service be too costly to carry out compared to the increment in payment then the product would not satisfy a number of basic needs for the customer in this case. All of them want a service that will give them leisure to go to the airport only at the appointed time especially those in business class, as they want to save as much time for work as possible. The benefits are quite applicable to their life, are quite self-explanatory, and outlined previously. Competitive strength In the first place, this is driven by one of two essential strategies. The first of them is a strategy for the high-end purchasers of products on a level of its own or a pay for a product that offers services that the competitors cannot compete. The second strategy deals with price such that the product is common, but sells at a lower price than its competitors sell. This idea belongs to the first section and so has great potential to be strong competitively in the market Value and differentiation are important factors to consider when considering the competitive forces in the market. For one, differentiation takes care of giving variety to the product such that its features offer something different for customers than its counterparts while value is all about the worth of the enterprise. The idea on extra servicing may come close to being expensive as per value but offers something different in the market. Boundary and Establishment Risks The other major consideration one should make when undertaking in such an idea is consider the risk factors. This is done by searching for weak spots and flaws in the framework. This is possible by looking for possible problematic situations that can be trouble. Two types of risks are boundary and establishment risks. These are risks are beyond the control of the person that initiated the idea but they hinder the commercial feasibility of the idea. This idea does not seem to have any such characteristics in the framework in some cases. This is such that it is safe in that it would easily meet regulatory framework. However, it vulnerable to changes in technology that could make it obsolete. It is safe for the environment and cannot affect it in a negative way (English and Moate, 2009). These are the boundary risks because they affect the project in such a way as to deem the idea not possible. These risks are beyond control and are in most cases related to some fixed variable that alter it. These include safety regulations for the environment, and terms of operation depending on the project. The plan is, however, vulnerable to social and economic forces in the society. Therefore, there risk would be somewhat in this case. Establishment risks, on the other hand, concern the setbacks that would affect the project in the startup stage. These risks are not exactly short term but they are manageable. They include some informal issues that are mostly personal concerning whether the creator of the plan has everything necessary to carry the project out until the end. Although, in this case, the person in the driving seat would have more control over these issues than they would the boundary risks (English and Moate, 2009). They are mostly personal asking questions like; do you understand the market? Alternatively, will the idea successfully transition to a business enterprise? Will every aspect of the idea transition the way originally intended and so on. The basic fact is that these risks are constant, and one has to choose which to attend to and to ignore in the process. Then there is the risk of litigation, someone else that saw the idea could just as easily stake a claim. The number of lawsuits about patents is receiving a steady rise and so are the cases of the plaintiffs winning. The other factor to consider would be the fact that intellectual property eventually entails a license to make money. Therefore, there are some legal processes to go through in order for it to work. The advantage is that the intellectual property in this case is an original idea and so is not so capital intensive. This makes it inexpensive and attractive to companies. On the legal perspective, companies cannot ignore this field. Reason being they may be using someone else’s idea, which would be infringing on another person’s idea. This is because they are so common and hard to miss that they have to be accounted. Business Model When identifying a business model, one has to make a business that makes sense. What it is in the basic sense is a strategy that accumulates the skills and resources that transform the idea into a reality. In short, a successful business comes because of a combination of the potential of an idea to be commercially beneficial and the skills used to transform that idea. These skills are numerous and all essential in nature. For one, the entrepreneur must have an in depth knowledge of the market, as well as financial, managerial and technical skills to manipulate the market to their advantage. Of course, the level and the importance of the skills highly depend on the level and sophistication of the project. The nature of the market also factors into this equation. It would not make sense to use sophisticated methods on a simplistic idea with few dimensions. It would be considered over kill and wastage. Of course, the situation in which the creator of the idea is in factors also. They have to consider the resources they can accumulate to take realistically on the idea to full completion. Thus, using sophisticated methods may employ resources that are not in their reach. This may be too expensive or too stressful to integrate into the current environment. In this case, the amount of managerial, financial and operational skills needed to operate this idea into a success are quite sophisticated because it involves a wide network of organized human labor that only a major company could handle like a massive airline corporation. When it comes to resources, good resources form the backbone of a successful business plan. These include adequate financial, human, intellectual and network resources (English and Moate, 2009). In a business plan, such as this one the protagonists have to have a vast reservoir of all resources mentioned above. They have the capability to muster them because they use these resources in their everyday transactions thus the experience is unparalleled and would not cause a lot of stress to their structures. On any other occasion, the acquisition of these resources would be expensive if the entrepreneur were working in an individual capacity, in the small scale. Therefore, it would be too unrealistic to for anyone other than a large corporation to pursue the resources of such magnitude for business. Forecasting, on the other hand, the basis of a business model that is successful is the sales part. It has to make financial sense in that there is a considerable profit to be had otherwise the sales will be break even and the business will just about support itself or even worse cause a loss felt in other departments of the company. Thus, the model should be built on a sensible forecast of sales revenue that happens to be based on the practical research done on the market. The plan has to have projected statements of income demonstrating the path or the strategy for earning a profit using the model. At this stage, the accurate analysis of all costs is essential to predict when the business will be able to break even. Therefore, it will have projected balance sheets. This are to indicate all of the assets acquired in the process. How these assets will be financed and how they generate a profit is part of the process. In the case, of the airline project, the cost will pertain mostly to labor and transportation. English and Moate (2009) state that these costs will need a cash flow budget to maintain liquidity. Commercial feasibility When it comes to business opportunities in the current era, a few things need to be taken into consideration. For one, the current entrepreneur and the major companies have come to terms that change is a constant in the scheme of things. The market is driven by human tastes and so is subject to fickle behavior. They have discovered that by stopping to observe changes around they can discover clues of the trends of market demand. If there is no change, then businesses tend to do very well because their goods have been proven to satisfy the market tastes or there is minimal competition from others. In a case where the market is diverse, then certain studies should be taken on its structure including demographic trends. These outline the racial, ethnic and age characteristics. The lifestyle and social factor should also be taken into account as the standard of living gives a hint on the tastes. In this case, the demographic trends around the airlines itself suggest a city situation which holds great commercial potential for market. Lifestyle trends tend to move towards extravagance in these parts, which is a good thing suggesting that people are spending more and more on quality of services rather than pay attention to the economic attribute concerned. Relating to the analysis taken previously, this is a good opportunity that should not be taken lightly. The risks stated earlier also need attention. The boundary risks are negligible because they can hardly apply to this situation. This is because there are no uncontrollable risks to the environment or health hazards concerning safety. Establishment risks, on the other hand, are many but can be controlled. The main concern, in this case, is the legal hazards this enterprise can bring into the fore, as it is intellectual property. This means the companies can face litigation on issues copyright as one can claim ownership of the plan that actually belongs to another company. On the other hand, the availability of the other materials to make this project a success urges a go-ahead. Thus, despite the numerous risks in the legal and informal sense, this project is quite feasible. This is the age of services, and so if a company does not exploit an opportunity to commercialize a service then another will take advantage. Therefore, if, one airline does not make this idea work to its advantage then another one will do it until it becomes a success. In the time of commercialization of almost every sector in the human world, it would make sense to be in the driving seat. The most enterprising competitor will win out because at this rate it will probably be a matter of time before the idea gets exploitation. Reference List Cukier, K., 2005. A market for ideas. [Online] The economist online. Available at: < http://www.economist.com/node/5014990?story_id=5014990> [Accessed July 14, 2011]. English, J. W. and Moate, B., 2009. Discovering New Business Opportunities. Australia: Griffin Press. World Intellectual Property Organization, 2011. What is Intellectual Property? [Online] Geneva: WIPO. Available at: [Accessed July 14, 2011]. Read More