Ensuring a Market for Ideas

With an announcement that Nortel will be selling off it's patent library, While it is strange for many to witness what was once formidable player in telecom reduced to it’s final asset, R+D patents, it begs the question of whether this is the most effective use of R+D patents of “expired” companies.

The patents will provide a stream of revenue to the eventual owner, and in some cases, innovative companies may be able to leverage patents for commercialization and push the scientific frontier. These patents will also be purchased to ensure new comers can be barred entry by incumbents. Essentially, with the price tag set to go in the Billions, regardless of their intended use, incumbent leaders seem to be the only ones able to acquire them and will leverage them as a way to protect market share.

The patent system was not designed for this reason. It is meant to maximize the potential for novel idea creation and materialization through the understanding for researchers, entrepreneurs, and risk takers that their new ideas will be protected. The clearing house auction of Nortel’s patents suggests that they maybe used for just the opposite – stifle the ability of the entrepreneur to take the risk in the first place. This is the crux of the argument put forth by leading professors in idea creation.

This concept applies to connected culture, as many of the greatest strides over the last 10 years have taken place in dorms, research labs, incubators and startup events. With entrants having faith that their patents would protect them, and incumbents like Oracle, Ebay, Intel and especially Google, encouraging independent innovation through cooperation or even acquisition allowed for an open paradigm and an effective market for ideas. Had R+D been used as a weapon to protect market share, than as an opportunity to change the way we communicate and create, you might not be reading this right now. At time when the telecom industry is facing an alarming shortage of talent, and seeing the talent pool undergo a significant shift, the market for ideas needs to be used for it’s intended purposes, and not as a corporate fence for an exclusive gated community. ,

Hopefully, with enough champions of innovation leading the charge at industry leading incumbent firms, we can see that come to fruition.