Manageability of Technical Innovation through Technical Property Rights

Abstract

The term innovation is used in many respects and has been evolving over the last decades. This paper mainly focusses on managing technical innovation and differentiates this kind of innovation from others. For managing technical innovation, this work applies technical property rights, patents and utility models. The opportunity to protect the companies’ technical knowledge legally is, apart from strategic measurements like trade secrecy, a very valuable tool to manage and commercialize innovation considering the shift from closed to rather open innovation. This paper discusses the applicability of legal protection measurements for the management of technical innovation containing a critical appraisal.

Keywords

• innovation management
• technical property rights
• patent
• utility model
• technical innovation
• open innovation
• restrictions of technical protection rights