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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2013 version)

  The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?

  Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

  Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and nobody else could patent them? They wish to preserve their freedom to practice, but they are very concerned about competitors' ability to benefit from LEGO Group's R&D investments or alternately interfere with its freedom to operate. The case frames important intellectual property issues around appropriability and strategy.

  Keywords: Plastics; injection molding; toys; LEGO; LEGO Group; Tools; Additive Manufacturing; 3D Manufacturing; Toolmaking; intellectual property; Patenting; patents; Spillovers; Knowledge Spillovers; Change; Trends; Engineering; Machinery and Machining; Intellectual Property; Patents; Operations; Production; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Technology Platform; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Europe; Denmark;

  Citation:

  Shih, Willy C., and Sen Chai. "The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?" Harvard Business School Case 613-079, March 2013. (Revised from original February 2013 version.)

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2013

  Fostering Translational Research: Using Public-Private Partnerships to Improve Firm Survival, Employment Growth, and Innovative Performance

  Sen Chai and Willy C. Shih

  Scientific research and its translation into commercialized technology is a driver of wealth creation and economic growth. Partnerships between public research organizations, such as universities and hospitals, and private firms are an established policy tool around the world for the delivery of social or public services, and their use as a tool to foster the translation of basic science into commercial applications that spur economic growth and increased employment has attracted increased interest. Yet questions about efficacy and the efficiency with which funds are used is a subject of frequent debate. This paper examines empirical data from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF or Højteknologifonden in Danish), an agency that funds partnerships between universities and private companies to develop technologies important to Danish industry. We assess the effect of a particular "mediated funding" scheme that combines project grants with active facilitation and conflict management on firm performance—survival, employment, and growth—and firm innovative performance—quantity, quality, and nature of patents and papers—by comparing funded and unfunded firms. To address endogeneity around selection bias, we use a qualitatively similar subsample of small and medium enterprises just above and just below the funding cutoff threshold and find convincing evidence that DNATF's mediated funding model has a compelling effect on firm performance and overall innovative performance three to four years after receipt of funds. Selection of a firm to participate helps it to stay financially viable and significantly decreases the likelihood of bankruptcy by up to 2.7 times (270%) four years after funding application. Selection also increases the average level of employment by 9.8 to 14.2 more employees for chosen firms, respectively two and three years after application. For innovative performance, selection of a firm for participation meant an increase in filed patents by up to 520%, granted patents by up to 430% and peer-reviewed publications 370%, but the effect of selection was mainly felt in quality of the innovations. Peer-reviewed citations for selected firms were 1,370% greater than those firms that did not make the cut-off. Finally, this public-private partnership model increased the level of collaboration among academic research scientists and those in private firms—participating firms collaborated 3.1 times more with colleagues in academia. This is a dramatic increase in collaboration and co-authoring across institutions, providing strong evidence for the benefits of breaking down the boundaries between institutions and enabling teams of individuals from both sides in public-private partnerships to work together alongside one another.

  Keywords: innovation; firm performance; public-private partnership funding; translational research; small and medium enterprises;

  Citation:

  Chai, Sen, and Willy C. Shih. "Fostering Translational Research: Using Public-Private Partnerships to Improve Firm Survival, Employment Growth, and Innovative Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13–058, January 2013.

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• Teaching Plan | HBS Case Collection | 2012

  The Langer Lab: Commercializing Science (TP)

  Vicki L. Sato and Annelena Lobb

  The Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was a unique operation. Its head, Robert Langer, had always focused on selecting ideas to research that would have the greatest positive impact for humanity, and he encouraged an unusual multidisciplinary approach at the lab, fostering collaboration between scientists from many diverse backgrounds. The approach led to exciting discoveries and innovations at the Langer Lab. Besides his intelligence, Langer's personality—expansive, magnanimous, and intensely curious—enticed many potential applicants. The lab also had a very strong working relationship with MIT's Technology Licensing Office, which wrote patents for all of the innovations created at the university. What lessons can be drawn from the Langer Lab about the management of research groups? How did the Langer Lab sustain innovation? Could the Langer Lab's processes successfully be imitated elsewhere?

  Keywords: computers; industry evolution; entrepreneurship; Intellectual capital; patents; R＆D; Technology Transfer; Patents; Research and Development; Massachusetts;

  Citation:

  Sato, Vicki L., and Annelena Lobb. "The Langer Lab: Commercializing Science (TP)." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 613-014, November 2012.

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