Title: Exploring the suitability of Chesbrough's open innovation concept for the exploitation and management of orphan works under copyright law

Authors: Muhamad Helmi Muhamad Khair; Haswira Nor Mohamad Hashim

Addresses: Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: Orphan works are copyright-protected works whose holders cannot be located. The solutions to enable access to these works include the use of fair defence, the extended collective licensing regime, the scheme for reappearing copyright holders, and the blockchain-based system. None of these options, however, have included an open innovation framework as part of the solutions. Therefore, this paper aspires to explore the suitability of Chesbrough's open innovation concept. This paper discusses two underlying theories for the exploitation of the orphan works and further highlights the suitability of the open innovation concept based on the said theories. This paper further argues that the open-innovation based model is suitable for the exploitation of the orphan works because it may encourage grassroots innovations and promote sustainable economic growth through one of open innovation's mechanisms, IP licensing.

Keywords: open innovation; Henry Chesbrough; orphan works; copyright law; innovation theory; new growth theory; NGT.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPM.2021.114601

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 2021 Vol.11 No.2, pp.136 - 153

Received: 31 Oct 2019
Accepted: 26 Mar 2020
Published online: 28 Apr 2021 *

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