Sustainable innovation and intellectual property rights: Friends, foes or perfect strangers?

Arbeitspapier

As sustainable innovation becomes a strategy for companies to gain competitive advantage, the question of how to profit from sustainable innovation becomes central. Surprisingly, little research exists on the appropriation strategies of companies engaged in sustainable innovation and the few studies are poorly connected. This chapter focuses on intellectual property rights (IPR), the formal tools available to companies to protect their intangible assets. I link the three main types of IPRs to common archetypes of sustainable innovation and I discuss the motives why companies might file patents, trademarks or design rights or instead choose not to. I conclude by discussing how IPRs might act as incentives, barriers or be simply neglected by sustainable innovators and I offer directions for further research.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: LEM Working Paper Series ; No. 2021/11

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Sustainable Development ; Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth ; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives ; Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
• Subject: Sustainability ; innovation ; intellectual property rights

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Castaldi, Carolina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM)
• (where): Pisa
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/243507
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET