Title: What impact does intellectual property have on the business performance of technology firms?

Authors: Kelvin W. Willoughby

Addresses: School of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia

Abstract: This paper reports the results of an original empirical study of the relationship between intellectual property and the financial performance of technology firms in the bioscience-technology industries. The study found a statistically significant positive relationship between the firms' investments in intellectual property and their performance. The performance measure was based upon revenue-growth data collected from each firm, and the categories of intellectual property analysed included patents, trade secrets, trademarks, copyright and licenses to externally sourced technology. This study also found that the financial benefits of accumulating a strong intellectual property portfolio were enjoyed by technology firms regardless of whether they were strategically oriented towards R&D or strategically oriented towards the commercial production of products and services.

Keywords: intellectual property management; IPM; patents; trade secrets; trademarks; copyright; licenses; financial performance; R&D; research and development; commercial production; strategic management; business performance; technology firms; bioscience; biotechnology; revenue growth.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPM.2013.057634

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 2013 Vol.6 No.4, pp.316 - 338

Received: 11 Jul 2013
Accepted: 13 Aug 2013
Published online: 31 Mar 2014 *

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