Lawyer of Orlando

The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property

Description

How to turn intellectual property into an indispensable source of competitive advantage

Mark Blaxill and Ralph Eckardt have consulted for companies that are highly efficient, full of hard workers and smart managers—yet barely able to eke out a profit. They’ve also worked in undisciplined, mismanaged companies that generate huge margins year after year. The key to sustainable profits, they realized, was intellectual property. Yet most managers are unable to see the power of IP because they were trained to focus on more tangible factors.

This book is about turning invisible assets into an unbeatable edge. With the right IP and the right strategies, companies can command premium prices, increase market share, sustain lower costs, and even generate income directly. Without it, their products are undifferentiated and they can compete only on price.

The authors teach readers a new way to see their invisible assets, analyze them, and build a business around them. Unlike other books that focus on the legal and technical issues of IP, this one is totally practical.

Blaxill and Eckardt include fascinating case studies, ranging from golf balls (did Titleist steal technology from Bridgestone?) to Facebook (can it sustain its lead against new social networks?). They also look at a dozen mainstream companies in a wide range of industries, such as Toyota, Procter & Gamble, and IBM.

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-03-02
Summary: "An engaging look at the importance of patents"

As a patent attorney, I do not often see books about patents that are likely to be interesting to the general public. This book is an exception. It contains some very interesting and engaging stories, and at the same time it makes a convincing case for the use of intellectual property as a central tool in gaining a competitive edge.

The book starts with a Tiger Woods story on the first page. Mark O'Meara had a good but not spectacular golfing career until 1998 when at the age of 41 he won the Masters and the British Open. His sudden form improvement was attributable to a new type of golf ball. O'Meara's friend Tiger Woods started using the new type of ball, and then everyone else followed. The main ball manufacturer then started making the new type of ball, but they ran into trouble because the new ball was patented. I suspect that this story and others like it are tweaked for dramatic effect, but they certainly help to make the book interesting.

The authors say that you can determine the strength of a company's patent position by the number of times that company's patents have been cited by other patents; in my view the usefulness of information derived from patent citations is marginal at best. The authors deny that there is any problem with patent trolls; in my view the purpose of the patent system, to encourage innovation which creates economic growth and ultimately benefits everyone, is not assisted by someone who buys up old patents from a bankrupt company at a bargain price and then uses them to extract unreasonable royalties from others.

The book's central thrust is about the importance of intellectual property, with particular emphasis on patents. I think that this message is a vital one. Almost all economic growth over the last 200 years has been attributable to technological improvements, and future economic growth will depend on more innovation. Patents have been important in encouraging innovation. The book does not acknowledge the many failings of the current patents system, but it is still a great read.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-03-02
Summary: "Great IP Book"

This is a great book. It successfully combines statistics, business examples, and historical anecdotes. The authors excel at providing both a broad perspective and specific examples of why IP management is critical to businesses and nations.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-11-13
Summary: "What Every Executive and Congress Need to Understand About Patents and IP"

Blaxill and Eckhardt's "Invisible Edge" is a must read for every 21st century business executive, every member of Congress and their staffs, every judge that hears patent cases, and every citizen interested in the U.S. economy making a sustainable recovery from our current financial crisis and continuing to be the world's most innovative and successful economy. This book lays out the case for why every business organization, no matter how large or small, needs to have an intellectual property strategy that is consistent with its overall business strategy. As stated in the book, "a business plan without an Intellectual Property (IP) strategy is simply philanthropy".

The authors set out in clear and concise terms all the reasons and approaches that a 21st century business enterprise must take with respect to creating a sustainable advantage for long run survival and success. While patents were indispensable in the industrial era, in a post-industrial, global, knowledge-based economy, patents and other IP protection are the key building blocks upon which any organization must build a strong and lasting foundation. As a founder of Aurigin Systems, Inc., creator of an early software platform for managing patents in their competitive landscapes and as a founder of IP Checkups Inc., providing competitive patent landscape and patent monitoring and alerting services, the strategies presented in this book are critical steps to building a successful company in today's world. Without strong IP protection, once a product or service is put on the market, competitors have been given a free meal ticket to feed off of your hard earned developments and inventions, all at no cost. By building a strong patent portfolio as the underpinings of a business, even if the business itself fails in the marketplace, the IP portfolio will still provide the owners a measure of realizeable value.

The "Invisible Edge" makes an excellent case as to why the current efforts to "reform" the U.S. Patent System are misguided and not beneficial to the majority of companies operating in the U.S. Those involved in Patent Reform legislation should read this book to understand why Article 1, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution is so fundamental to the continuing success of the U.S. economy. Further weakening of the U.S. patent system will undermine, not only innovation, but the all important investments necessary to bring innovations to the marketplace.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-07-24
Summary: "An unusually substantive business book"

The average business book is really a business article, padded out to book length via stings of anecdotes and repetition of the obvious. Not in this case. Blaxill and Eckardt have a substantive case to make - namely, that in the search for sustainable competitive advantage, most managers are looking in the wrong place. According to the authors, conventional management efforts - focused as they are on operational efficiencies and "best practices" - are bound to fail, because in an era of hypercompetition, traditional advantages can't be defended for any length of time.

Instead, they argue, intellectual property is the only key to lasting advantage - and IP strategy should be the chief focus of senior management's attention. To delegate IP to specialists from the legal and engineering camps is to fail.

Blaxill and Exckardt support the argument with extensive, detailed examples of companies that got their IP right and those that didn't, as well as policy decisions that strengthened or weakened IP positions. In particular the story of Xerox - effectively stripped of its IP in the '70s in a misguided government effort to ensure competitiveness. Overseas competitors thrived on the IP they were able to access, and Xerox never recovered. It's a cautionary tale for 21st-Century patent policy.

Blaxill and Eckardt are IP traditionalists - they favor strong protection. They're definitely not members of the Wickinomics/"information wants to be free" camps. There's a place for IP collaboration in their world, but it needs to be balanced against the recognition that too much sharing at the wrong time risks diluting a company's sole source of value. Not a fashionable viewpoint by any means, but one that needs and deserves to be heard.

For senior executives struggling to set strategic direction in challenging times... for policymakers who need to lay the foundations for a healthier, more competitive economy... and for investors who need a firmer basis than quarter-by-quarter financial performance to value their holdings... The Invisible Edge provides a worthwhile new lens. Recommended.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-07-22
Summary: "Superb Read"

If anyone interested in fresh ideas on how the U.S. can retain its competitive advantage, this book is for you. I recommend this book on the fact that it's an advantageous read for anyone who might want to gain a step on the competition. You won't be disappointed!