THE IMPORTANCE OF INTELLECTUAL

PROPERTY RIGHTS IN
TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

By: Chelli Adasa

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)

According to the World Trade Organization, intellectual property

rights (IPR) are the rights given to persons over the creations of
their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over
the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.
Almost all countries impose penalties to increase the cost of
abusing these rights. It includes the payment of civil damages,
imprisonment, injunction and the destruction of the infringing
goods.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
Interdisciplinary field that integrates science, engineering, and management knowledge and practice. The
focus is on technology as the primary factor in wealth creation (Khalil, 2000).
wealth- knowledge, intellectual capital, effective exploitation of resources, preservation of the natural
environment, and other factors that may contribute to raising the standard of living and quality of life
Managing technology implies managing the systems that enable the creation, acquisition and
exploitation of technology
It involves managing innovation in order to meet the requirements of the society for a better way of
accomplishing tasks by means of improved process and new products.
linking the benefits of technology to the public through commercialization.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
Tools:
technology audit
technology forecasting
technology foresight
technology scouting
target-driven technology road mapping.

THE IMPORTANCE OF IPR AND

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
The importance of intellectual property rights is felt heavily in the
goal of technology management to create wealth through
commercialization and innovation.
protecting IPR- inducing technological change and facilitating
economic growth
a strong IPR regime stimulates economic growth by providing
incentives to scientists and engineers that come up with
innovation. Incentives: source of pride and monetary gains
Innovation and research has a ripple effect on the development of
other ideas that may bring forth other product developments and
new findings.

 IPR protects products that are to be launched in the market from

being imitated by scrupulous entrepreneurs.
These unprotected small industries may not fully enjoy the
benefits of the first to market principle if bigger competitors with
larger capital base and established distribution channel would copy
and sell a small firms innovation
When a company has a higher market value, it can commercialize
more products.
an IPR protected product, can also generate additional income for
the firm from the licensing of an IP protected product
Trademark as an effective marketing tool
Governments role to ensure that the law is implemented and
accessible by all

CONCLUSION
Technology management tools such as technology audit, forecasting, foresight,
scouting and roadmapping would greatly be effective and efficient with the help
of intellectual property rights.
Having a protected technology landscape would help technology firms to thrive
because of the incentives it brings to firms in innovating and commercializing
technology products.
Unprotected technology landscape would cause for the stunt of technology
growth since there would be no incentives for innovators to publicize
inventions for fear that it might be copied.
Without these inventions, nothing would be commercialized
nothing to be managed in technology management because technology would
no longer evolve.