This work examines the current, relevant and complex problem of how companies can take an intellectual property lead within research and development collaborations. Special emphasis is placed on the early phases of the innovation process and the service industry sector in which intellectual property management is still a new phenomenon. The author derives archetypes for managing intellectual property in collaborations and analyses their strengths and weaknesses. The findings of the book are based on a series of interviews with companies in a variety of industries and regions, as well as on a detailed examination of the service companies IBM, SAP, Swisscom and SwissRe. The author offers organizational and managerial recommendations based both on his extensive industry background and on scientifically induced hypotheses, and has thus written a book of interest to both scientists and practitioners.
