Strategic management of intellectual properties for competitive advantage - Proposal of a framework for IPR evaluation

Intellectual property, clearly, is a major component for competitive advantage in the 21st century. We can see many industries where IPR played important roles for competitive advantage in the past. However, the Japanese electronics industry lost its leadership in the DRAM and DVD business, despite the fact that it had strong technology superiority in terms of IPR. This suggests that recognition of IPR importance is not sufficient. This paper deals with patents which are important components of intellectual property; specifically this paper tries to visualize the competitive advantage of technology utilizing the two-dimensional framework of IPR exclusiveness and product life cycle.