One of the ways intellectual property assets create value is in the ability to license the right to use the intellectual property to others. This can be for a fee or not. Either way, the owner’s stock of reputational or expertise capital grows simply by having a valuable asset that creates value and utility for […]

All of the nonprofits were asked who is authorized to make decisions regarding the use of organization’s Intellectual Property on behalf of the organization. This question is distinct from the one asked earlier about the day-to-day management because it gets at the strategic, rather than tactical, usage of IP. The nonprofits shared that: Comparing this […]

The next set of questions in the 2014 survey circled back to the ownership of the nonprofit’s intellectual property. There is no ability to exclude if an organization does not have some ownership in the IP assets. The more I thought about ownership of IP assets in the nonprofit sector and discussed this series of […]

I then asked respondents whether the organization has any written policies regarding the intellectual property assets. Written policies are not necessary for having internally understood standards or expectations of management regarding organizational decisions and processes. However, in this context, written policies were chosen as a way to determine the more thoughtfulness than just awareness of […]

The next question I asked the respondents was whether the organization had officially registered their copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office or their trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Asking about the registration of intellectual property is insight into two things: that there is a desire to claim ownership and the ability to […]

The management framework that the nonprofit sector predominately uses, New Public Management, is a bad fit. What’s needed is a framework that recognizes the strategic work of nonprofits. So, why is New Public Management a bad fit? New Public Management (NPM) is a management framework that was first adopted by public administration professionals as a […]

As capstones to my reading, these two texts helped to frame some key concepts that would move my nonprofit intellectual property questions forward. I was out of my comfort zone with Lessig’s The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World and Landes and Posner’s The Economic Structure of Property Law. […]

I started my reading with Burning the Ships: Transforming Your Company’s Culture Through Intellectual Property Strategy. Marshall Phelps, also happened to be an alumnus of Muskingum University, where I was working at the time. It didn’t hurt to be able to say I’d read his book to my bosses. Frankly, the book was immensely insightful. […]

The librarians at Indiana University sent some content my way that highlighted what I had experienced working at the University of Pittsburgh. Institutions of higher education, particularly larger schools, have staff, policies, strategy, and resources specifically for the development, management, and transfer of innovation from the researcher(s) to industry. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 transformed […]

How could I have worked for three organizations that made strategic use of their IP and no one researching the sector even mentions it? It seemed highly unlikely that I had happened to work at the only three nonprofits who were innovative enough to recognize their IP and they all happen to be in a […]