Edison in the Boardroom. How Leading Companies Realize Value from Their Intellectual Assets

Julie L. Davis and Suzanne Harrison Today's corporations are always on the lookout for exciting new and innovative ideas that can be used to generate revenue. Up until recently, this meant taking these ideas and turning them into products or services, which could then be sold for profit. But today, a unique new concept is revolutionizing the way companies are getting value from ideas. Instead of incorporating them into products or services, today's innovations may be bartered, licensed or sold in the «idea» stage for tremendous amounts of money. For example, IBM currently receives well over $1 billion in revenue every year from licensing its intellectual property, unrelat…