Managing and evaluating intellectual property rights

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are a key component of today's economy. At worldwide level, they account for the large majority of large companies' assets. IPRs are a key component also for small and medium enterprises, as well as for start-ups acting in high tech industries.
This course is intended to provide students with theory and practice about how to manage IPRs proactively. To this end, students will first understand IPRs features (what makes IPRs special?), their origin and motivation (how IPRs emerged?) and the main issues scholars and practitioners are still debating (what is the role of intellectual property? are IPRs beneficial for innovation?). The first part of the course is specifically devoted to tackle these issues.
Managing also requires a deep understanding of the ways IPRs can be used to extract value. Companies can rely on IPRs to defend their position in a classic way or to proactively extract additional value through in-bound and out-bound processes. The recently emerging market for IPRs offers companies new, unprecedented options, but also bears possible risks. The second part of the course aims at tackling these topics.

Participants in this course will learn which are the main intellectual property rights, their features, and how to manage and to protect them. In particular, they will understand how to set up an IP protection strategy within a company, how to identify and tackle the main threats in IPRs' protection, and what the practical tools are for ensuring such protection. Additionally, they will learn the main criteria for evaluating IPRs, in order to get a better understanding on how to exploit innovations within companies.