Understanding the Openness in innovation

While dealing with open innovation and resource distribution, the primary aim of this strategy is to encourage peer involvement and participation. This peer involvement is substantiated with the open environment which helps them in ensuring that large access is possible to make the environment more enriching. Such an open environment has been substantiated with the fact that large participation will only be possible with more accessibility in it.

Since, this accessibility, if kept under control, will diminish the performance of the openness and will not have the strong strategizing of the IP related with it. Less accessibility will have less chance for openness and therefore, will affect the IP strategy in this environment. For this effective accessibility and more solid protection, the IP strategy must be licensed in a way that must ensure no appropriation which is similar to the copyleft pattern. Therefore, we can form interlinks within all. For effective resource distribution, the important part is the market.

The market should ensure large participation and therefore, an open environment is needed. And finally, this large participation must be effectively managed through licensing, thereby, providing an efficient and stronger framework for the IP strategy.

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The pattern that has to be used in the licensing must not be in the sense that the inventor gave up its IPR. As stated, this structure is similar to that of the copyleft pattern. The corporate and the business strategy must align the openness Fliin the area of their practice. Hence, a similar strategy can be used in the patents and other IPR for the effective strategizing of IP.

example of the BIOS initiative

For this, the author will cite the example of the BIOS initiative that follows the open innovation for the specific area of the patent. This example is important because it will help the reader to understand the strategy that the author is talking about. Multiple scholars have tried to show the copyleft regime outside the copyright and BIOS examples fits here. The BIOS stands for Biological Innovation for Open Society, works for making the open environment for plant transformation research tools. Such tools are re-used for making more improved strains of crops covering various tools which include Transbacter and GUS gene reporter.

This is similar to what the author describes as a grant back mechanism, where if anyone is using the tools must agree with the BIOS terms of agreeing to share back the improvements and make it available again in the open environment. In a dynamic perspective, this creates an environment: “in which a material or invention can be improved by the ideas of many, but access is maintained for all who agree to the terms, without exclusive capture by anyone”. To be specific, the BIOS patents are open but not all patents are free of charge.

Nevertheless, the structure is implied by the BIOS is an example of an efficient strategy that must be followed in the business to increase the valuation of the firm and no appropriation on the other hand. This also includes the liberty from the side of the corporate or the developer, to control the access through the IPR as per his requirements. But a stringent check will affect the openness. Hence a balance is required.

Various scholars have remarked that the appropriation at the end is required for the firms to be encouraged. Hence BIOS also works in this regard stating that the appropriation cannot be done only with regards to the upstream research tools. And any such treatment of application derived from those research tools might not come within the ambit of openness. Hence, this strategizing of IP can have two streams. The first one is about giving openness for all further developments.

Any follow-on research will not be appropriated in any form. And the second one denotes the specific research tools which can be appropriated. Therefore, the strategy can take multiple ambits under its interpretation as per the requirements is concerned. But this type of structuring requires detailing of the tools for further consideration of whether to appropriate or not.

Author: Saransh Chaturvedi an associate at IP And Legal Filings,  in case of any queries please contact/write back us at support@ipandlegalfilings.com.