FOREWORD

“YES” WAS MY unhesitating answer when Julie Davis and Suzanne Harrison asked me to write the foreword for their new book, Edison in the Boardroom. I respect the authors for their knowledge of intellectual assets, and I share their reverence for the famed innovator.

With a quarter century of IP consulting accomplishments between them, Julie Davis and Suzanne Harrison bring real corporate street smarts to an all-too-theoretical field. Through their work as consultants with Andersen and ICMG, these two are at the forefront of change in the intellectual property field.

Moreover, their choice of an icon is fitting. If Thomas Alva Edison stands tall in the history of science, he looms as a giant in the history of business. The inventor's contributions did not end in his laboratories. Instead, through his guidance, they evolved into vast business empires that exist to this day—notably personified in the legendary General Electric. The Edison emulated in these pages is not the Edison whose brilliant tinkering helped build our modern industrial world. Rather, it is the Edison whose methodical management of the entire IP process ensured that these inventions would build value for his companies' shareholders.

In my view, this is the Edison we need to emulate today. My book Rembrandts in the Attic, coauthored with David Kline, drove home one central point: IP may be neglected, like a painting in an attic, but once discovered, it can become extremely valuable. We showed readers how companies have made millions by planning their patents, mining them for value, and mapping a strategy. The instant success of our book in the marketplace showed that businesses around the world were hungry for such examples.

Edison in the Boardroom makes this same message even more immediate, showing executives and others exactly how to climb the “Intellectual Asset Value Hierarchy,” a methodical approach worthy of the Edisonian name. Using examples from nearly two dozen companies, the authors guide readers through a logical sequence of steps, progressing from defense of intellectual property to the heights of strategic vision for all intellectual assets.

THE CONTINUING NEED FOR PRACTICAL IP GUIDANCE

This manual comes none too soon in a field that craves practical guidance. I speak from experience. A decade ago, my business partner Irving S. Rappaport and I cofounded a small company (then called SmartPatents) that became Aurigin Systems, Inc. Irving and I wanted to create and market a software and research tool that could help IP attorneys and managers perform their jobs. Even back then, in 1992, we saw IP as far more than a fixed legal asset; we saw it as a dynamic business process. But sometimes it seemed that we were voices crying in the wilderness.

Our company's mission was simple. IP professionals could use our software and related management concepts to perform their functions at a higher level. In helping companies use our software, we urged them to avoid a reactionary approach to patents. Companies, we said, should not automatically file and renew patents in assembly-line fashion. Instead, they should actively choose what patents to pursue based on precise and telling competitive information. In a phrase, the Aurigin product enables companies to identify the IP rights they own, see how those rights fit into the competitive landscape, and decide where to focus their future R&D efforts.

But as any vendor of software applications knows, a company can have the best software and applications in the world, but unless company managements are prepared to use them effectively, these tools will fail to succeed in the marketplace. And while we took great satisfaction in the truth and beauty of our product, we wanted above all else to survive and thrive in the marketplace. That was one reason I decided to join David Kline in writing Rembrandts in the Attic, which exhorted companies to consider IP as a valuable structural asset that transcended mere ownership control.

To a large degree, we succeeded in this goal. Rembrandts sparked IP revolutions in many major companies, and still enjoys brisk sales after two years. Yet despite the publication of Rembrandts—and the many periodical articles we and others have written to pound home its major premise—much of the IP world remains anchored in the legal world. This is unfortunate. Corporate IP functions are often headed by astute professionals who have not only legal but also technical backgrounds. These pros are eminently qualified to make a difference. In fact, many of them are yearning to do so. Sadly, however, their internal campaign's efforts to bring IP into the twenty-first century often end in failure. They must cede power to a dying mentality—one still widespread in many major corporations—that sees IP as an asset separate from innovation, rather than as a process intimately linked to it.

A USEFUL MODEL FOR IP PROGRESS

Edison does far more than drive] yet another nail in the would-be coffin of this old mindset. Instead, Edison embraces the defensive ownership of IP as a necessary and first level in a dynamic “value hierarchy” for intellectual assets.

The upward journey described here is long but rewarding. It includes not only the defense of IP, but also the control of costs, the pursuit of profits, the integration of IP into the corporate fabric, and the creation of a lasting vision for IP and all of a company's intellectual assets.

I strongly recommend Edison in the Boardroom to all corporate leaders, managers, and advisors charged with maximizing the value of their companies' intellectual property. Whatever your challenges are, you will find solutions here.

KEVIN G. RIVETTE

May 2001