Nordic IPR 2018 preview: an interview with Ericsson

In recent years, the area of research and development (R&D) has witnessed a quantum jump in complexity, and as a result the number of IP rights within products and services has increased dramatically. The outcome of this is that companies are becoming increasingly reliant on third party IP rights to innovate, and regularly cooperate with other R&D development performers in order to produce innovative solutions.

In the age of the internet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that any single company cannot depend on its own assets and innovations constructed from company in-house research alone and must turn to external sources in order to advance to innovation progress.

In regards to IP, striking the right balance between a cooperative strategy and protection against competition is key to building innovation without giving away vital assets. However, this is not without challenges, as making the change from more ‘closed’ strategies to open innovation demands significant organisational changes.

Ahead of the Nordic IP rights 2018 event, Legal IQ spoke exclusively to Peter Ericsson-Nestler, Director of IP rights Defensive Strategies, Ericsson about why more organisations are choosing to adopt more open development strategies, as well as the best mechanisms for cooperation around IP rights, and benefits and drawbacks of open innovation.

Why choose cooperation?

Evidence suggests that companies are increasingly recognising the benefits of participating in IP collaborations. Adopting a more open framework for innovation provides the opportunity for companies to access a more diverse pool of ideas, “the ideal collaboration is where you share information, problems, questions and solutions, in a way where all the parties benefit,” says Ericsson-Nestler.

One way to successfully overcome many R&D and marketplace challenges is by sourcing new ideas, technologies and skills from outside one’s own organisation. Ericsson-Nestler also comments that a cooperative strategy is the best approach to development “when the cooperation adds more to the value than what could be created internally”.

It is important to ensure that IP rights are respected when working under a cooperative strategy, “you have to have a proper agreement in place to make sure that everything is managed in the way you want” says Ericsson-Nestler.

Establishing this agreement needs to happen early on in the development process and in order to have a proper cooperation agreement, organisations must pin down who owns which areas and how IPRs can be used in the cooperation.