Intellectual Property Strategy - balancing co-operation and exclusivity through use of open source software

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School of Science | Master's thesis
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Date

2010

Department

Informaatio- ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta

Major/Subject

Yritysstrategia ja kansainvälinen liiketoiminta

Mcode

TU-91

Degree programme

Informaatioverkostojen tutkinto-ohjelma

Language

en

Pages

vii + 102

Series

Abstract

Mass collaboration and open innovation are the buzzwords of the current decade. Company internal development is no longer sufficient to assure that the market offering remains on an attractive level for the consumer. The struggle of the internal department for intellectual property protection is to strive to ensure exclusivity for the company, which could be utilized for revenue, while not hindering this modern form of openness between corporations and the surrounding society. This thesis describes the legal models through which exclusivity and collaboration have been balanced in the modern mobile operating system market. Through an empirical analysis, and a literature overview of the research in the area, legal strategy alternatives are discovered through which the grant of right's by a contributor may be controlled. In order to thoroughly understand the consequences of providing material for collaboration, or when using this material in ones distributable, the license implications in the open source area must be well understood by the exploiter. Information of the legal ambiguity, and the risk related thereto, with regards to some key questions in open source area is also provided in this thesis. The outcome of this thesis is that freedom for optimization of the mobile operating system asset strategy is possible only when the platform is separated into subsections. Definition of the architecture and the interaction of these subsections, complemented by analysis of the available technologies in the market and identification of the core strengths possessed by the company, is the most essential task of the company internal research and development organization. Once the initial analyses for the architecture are done, the role of each piece within the operating system is to be defined. When an individual target strategy for the area has been set, the legal intentions are to be identified for each individual section independently. The alternative choices are: differentiate; provide academically; provide as free software; standardize; neutralize or share cost. The legal strategy choices of the company will set its competitive position and assure it optimizes the revenue generated by its technology. Through optimization of the overall asset rigorous protection of IPR, possessed by the company in a domain intended for differentiation, may in another area be balanced by liberal open source terms.

Description

Supervisor

Maula, Markku

Thesis advisor

Amper, Mikko

Keywords

IPR and legal strategies, immateriella rättigheter, Linux kernel, juridiska strategier, open source, Linux, open innovation, operativsystem, smartphone operating systems, öppen innovation, öppen källkod

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2020122356764

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[dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI