Virtual Monopoly: Building an Intellectual Property Strategy for Creative Advantage - from Patents to Trademarks, from Copyrights to Design Rights

Intellectual property is hot news. Witness the almost daily reports of 'patent madness' and 'brand bullies' on one hand and 'illegal downloads' and the 'death of copyright' on the other. Balance this with the patenting of the human genome; one-click Amazon business method patents; drug patenting in South Africa; cybersquatting and digital piracy. However, the media reports provide only a snapshot of a much bigger picture and Virtual Monopoly offers pioneering insights into the major shifts taking place behind the headlines-developments that allow companies of any size to leverage their creative advantage. This book offers a radical vision of new economics at play, that of virtual monopoly in which creative vision is the starting point and intellectual property the enabling currency. Christopher Pike demonstrates how intellectual property rights in the form of patents, rights in designs, trademarks and copyrights can be used to protect a product and the business built around that product. Such definition of the intangible gives real advantages to business-a virtual monopoly. The economy is dumbing up. Breakthrough creativity is becoming the last great untapped source of sustainable advantage. But on its own, creative advantage is incapable of forming the basis for strong, sustainable business advantage. What really matters is a company's ability to build exclusive business space around that creative advantage by establishing effective barriers to competition. Virtual Monopoly will show you how to power up your own creative adantage to establish strong exclusive business spaces through the use of intellectual property. Think of iMac, Volkswagen Beetle or Dyson as not just great productsbut as exclusive design spaces protected by patents, designs and trademarks. The rewards of the new economics of virtual monopoly are there for the taking...