With more companies including multinational corporations (MNCs) tapping on external technology partnerships to grow their innovation pipelines, there is also an increased interest to understand the essentials of IP and how to better manage the open innovation process to protect one’s investments.

IPI’s Senior Director, Dr Sze Tiam Lin was pleased to be invited to share at a recent lunch talk with the Global Operations team from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), his insights on the opportunities and challenges when facilitating technology and R&D collaborations with MNCs, with a focus on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) management.

Case studies were used to illustrate different IP models and treatment of foreground and background IPs in R&D collaborations. Dr Sze also highlighted some useful IP strategies to support open innovation and explained how IPI can work alongside EDB to support MNCs pursuing an open innovation strategy.

The session was a lively and interactive one where participants shared their IP-related experiences in the course of their engagement with companies.