Recommended Books on Business Decision-Making Using Intellectual Property?

By Eric Goldman

I posted the following to the IPProfs email list:

I teach the IP Survey course principally as a business law course, i.e., companies are trying to make business decisions, and IP doctrines can help (or hinder) those decisions. Therefore, I emphasize the interplays between the various IP doctrines and explore how businesses can use the doctrines as substitutes or complements to each other.

I got the following email from an intellectually curious student: “I didn’t know about the interactions between different areas of IP before. Also the strategic aspects on how to take advantage each type of IP law. Can you point to some more supplemental readings on this area?”

I felt strangely stumped in making recommendations, and now I fear I’m forgetting some obvious targets. I’d be grateful for any suggestions/recommendations.

I got the following suggestions back from the email list:

Howard Anawalt, Idea Rights

Arena and Carrenas, The Business of Intellectual Property

Jon Garon, Own It

Paul Goldstein, Intellectual Property: The Tough New Realities That Could Make or Break Your Business

Michael Gollin, Driving Innovation

Gruner et al, Intellectual Property in Business Organizations: Cases and Materials

Scotchmer, Innovation and Incentives

Varian and Shapiro, Information Rules

Please send me any further suggestions!

UPDATE: Recommendations in response to this post:

John Palfrey, Intellectual Property Strategy

Mark Blaxill and Ralph Eckardt, The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property