WIPO’s Executive Business Course Focuses on IP as a means of Creating Competitive Commercial Advantage

Geneva, September 20, 2007
PR/2007/511

The role of intellectual property (IP) in developing and sustaining competitive commercial advantage was the focus of the third executive business program offered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Worldwide Academy, in Geneva, from September 17 to 19, 2007. The three-day course, entitled “Strategic Intellectual Property Management” brought together 40 senior executives from 32 businesses, research and development (R&D) and academic organizations in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The management of intellectual property is now a major area of business competence as important as innovation, technology, marketing, finance, corporate governance, industrial economics and strategy. WIPO’s executive program offers participants an opportunity to gain valuable insights into strategic IP management.   IP assets represent an increasingly significant proportion of corporate value and as such, there is a growing and real need for companies to acquire a practical understanding of how strategic management of IP assets can support the development of sustained competitive commercial advantage. 

The intensive three-day program provided a forum for participants to learn more about the creation of competitive advantage. The structure and spirit of the executive program encouraged lively discussions among the participating executives, managers, lawyers and instructors.

Sessions were run by seasoned academics and accomplished business executives, including James Conley, Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Jay Deshmukh, Senior Vice President, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tony Hadjiloucas, Director, Valuation, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Donal O'Conell, Director of IP, Nokia, who shared their thoughts and experiences on how to create and sustain value over time using IP as strategic business assets. 

The lectures, case studies and discussions developed a range of ideas, including the concept of value transference or premeditated use of various IP regimes to maintain the value of products and services over time; how to develop an internal IP system that appropriately rewards inventors and optimizes the protection of useful ideas; how to devise an effective licensing and litigation strategy in various markets; and, how to take stock of and measure the value of IP assets in the firm. Linkages between IP and innovation management, marketing and finance were also examined. 

Jean-Jacques Canonici, Patent Manager, Europe, Africa and Middle East, Procter and Gamble Company and Jackie Maguire, CEO, IP Solutions, shared a number of IP best practices to leverage creative and innovative forces in an enterprise and considered ways to harness and embed these forces in corporate strategy. 

WIPO Deputy Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry and Assistant Director General, Mr. Ernesto Rubio updated participants on latest developments and trends in the field of international IP and shared their views on how these developments and trends were likely to effect business organizations in the current operating environment and in the future.

The WIPO Worldwide Academy (WWA) is a center of excellence in teaching, training and research in IP. Its programs cater to different target audiences - inventors and creators, business managers and IP professionals, policy makers and government officials of IP institutions, diplomats and representatives, students and teachers of intellectual property and the civil society.

The portfolio of courses offered by the WWA is constantly evolving in line with the ever-changing IP landscape. The next WWA executive program will focus on Strategic Intellectual Property Finance, and will be held in Geneva from November 12 to 15, 2007. This course aims to provide finance managers with insights into the emerging and complex field of IP finance.

For information on future courses, please go to www.wipo.int/academy/en/execed or contact the WIPO Worldwide Academy directly at 34, Chemin des Colombettes, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland Tel: (41-22) 338 9111; Fax: (41-22) 740 1417; E-mail: execed.academy@wipo.int.