Growing Business Innovation: Developing, Promoting and Protecting IP

By Jonathan Reuvid

Innovation is fundamental to business.

Traditionally it means ‘a new idea, device, technique or method’ but increasingly it now refers to ideas that provide better solutions, meet the needs or even provide the answers to something not yet a problem.

Growing Business Innovation addresses areas such as collaboration, challenges for large and small organisations, measuring innovation and getting a return on your investment. It provides answers to questions such as:

• How do innovation and AI interact
• Can the innovation gap between corporates and SMEs be filled?
• What are the options for brand protection and dispute resolution?
• How can you claim R&D tax credits?
• How can business growth be achieved through industry-academia interactions?
• What is the impact of GDPR on IP work?
• How can you manage IP in your start-up business?
• How can business growth be achieved industry-academia interactions?

No matter what stage, innovation needs nurturing and this book will act as an invaluable guide with support and advice from authors who are themselves innovators.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legend Press
• Release date: Feb 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781789550276

Jonathan Reuvid

Jonathan Reuvid has more than 80 published titles to his name. He originated and has edited ten editions of Managing Business Risk in association with the Institute of Risk Management, and eight editions of Personal Wealth Management with the Institute of Directors. He is also co-author of International Trade, endorsed by ICC United Kingdom. The ninth edition of Investors' Guide to the United Kingdom will be published in November 2016 in association with UKTI.

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INTRODUCTION

This second edition of Growing Business Innovation takes readers further into exploring the nature of innovation, its essential role in the profitable development of business enterprises, its close relationship with intellectual property (IP) and the role of academia in its stimulation.

The contents are arranged in four parts, with the first section looking ahead at new challenges for innovation, already apparent, including artificial intelligence (AI), China’s growing activity in innovative development and appreciative inquiry. Part Two revisits the management of IP with new chapters on security threats, protection and dispute resolution together with authoritative overviews by leading practitioners of R&D tax credits, how to access them and the operation of the UK patent box.

In the third part opportunities for the exploitation of IP are discussed against the impact of threats from GDPR and emerging technologies. The final section of the book identifies the benefits for SMEs from working with universities and research institutes, explains the use of R&D tax credit claims to generate short-term bridging loans for start-ups and cites examples of harnessing defence technology for commercial innovation.

As usual, I am indebted to all authors for their insightful views and informative texts and to their firms for their essential advertising support. Our thanks also to Howard Read for his foreword on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and to Peter Holmes of Imperial Innovations for his Preface. The contact details of all authors are listed in Appendix and readers seeking further advice on their topics are encouraged to be in direct touch.

Jonathan Reuvid

Editor

PART ONE

INNOVATION FOR TOMORROW

1.1

INNOVATION, INTENTION AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Karren Whitely-Brooks Whitespace

While many of the chapters in this edition deal with specific details about Intellectual Property and the financial and tax implications of funding and protecting inventors, this opening chapter will deal with the more fundamental questions of the innovative process. The questions discussed will include, why a business should innovate? And how to make wise choices using the latest technological advances in artificial intelligence?

WHY INNOVATE? WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN?

If you take as a given that innovation is necessary for any business, and indeed society, to advance and flourish; then you may be reading this book to find an edge in your quest to improve your company. If however, you are an inventor, then you may not have the requisite mindset to be an innovator. Common wisdom would argue that if one can invent something then, surely, one is automatically, an innovator. The confusion begins when one reviews the popular definitions for the noun, innovation. Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers these definitions: 1. The introduction of something new. And goes on to state in its second most common definition: 2. A new method, idea or device.

When one explores other knowledge sources such as Wikipedia, they begin with the same definition for innovation as "something new but go on to expand the idea by stating, innovation takes place through the provision of more-effective products, processes... that are made available to markets, governments and society". If however, the inventor, who builds a better mousetrap, does not require a-brand new-mousetrap and the inventor is able to commercialise and positively affect society with his mousetrap, then that inventor is truly an innovator. Innovations are thus, incremental improvements which satisfy our clients’ needs and demands rather than just something new or different.

The futurist and author, Jacob Morgan gives a more easily understood example, which is important if you and your company want to innovate. He asks, Is Google Glass an invention or an innovation?, and offers in contrast, Is the Apple iPhone an innovation or an invention?. This is not just a discussion of semantics but goes to the core of the dilemma. If the invention of Google Glass, while novel and definitionally appearing to be an innovation, remains an oddity with little commercial acceptance or demand; then the invention of Google Glass, he argues, is not an innovation. The iPhone, Morgan states, is both new and has had a profound influence in the way we communicate, store and access data which makes it truly an innovation. It is as Wikipedia offers, the more-effective inventions which result in an innovation and the inventor and his company, to be classified as an innovator.

At a recent social gathering, I was asked, what are you working on? and I replied, we are helping a business foment innovation. My friend immediately asked, what have they invented? My reply was, "they have invented a new intention, and indeed, a new mindset." I wasn’t being glib or enigmatic but have found that the stated intention to innovate, which includes the goal of delivering something new or at least better and the mindset to commercialise the output of their work, are the two basic requisites for any company to be considered, truly innovative.

‘INTENTIONS HAVE NO INTELLIGENCE’

Unfortunately, the word new and the promise of innovation have become ubiquitous in our lives, as any visit to the supermarket will attest. It is obvious in every aisle of our shopping that new and improved can apply to everything from apples to zucchinis. All too often, leaders of business have a mindset which says, ‘innovation is just some business school hype or marketing speak.’ The scepticism surrounding innovation is that it has little relevance to the day-to-day operation of the company. We strongly suggest the company vision or mission statement which is necessarily a broad generalisation to be delivered over a long period, should include the intelligent intention to innovate. The company’s long view must be accompanied by the short-term deliverable projects, which will become commercially viable and make a difference to our clients and shareholders.

The following diagram demonstrates how the importance of long and short-term goals relate to a company’s ability to innovate. We would argue that in all three areas of Mission, Strategic Goals and Operating Objectives there must be a stated and determined intention to innovate; not lip service, but a firm and communicated intention; not just a hope but an intelligent intention.

The requirement for specific and short-term projects to produce commercial success is the test, which will prove whether the new product or process is truly innovative.

Figure 1.1.1 – Time horizons for short and long term