Research on Open Innovation in China: Focus on Intellectual Property Rights and their Operation in Chinese Enterprises

1. OPEN INNOVATION Open innovation was defined by Henry Ches-broug, a professor at Harvard Business School, in 2003. He believes that in an open innovation model, companies should use internal and external strength to develop new products and to commercialize them (Chesbrough, 2005). Figure 1 shows the open innovation model. In the closed innovation model, the steps from new products development to the market are completed within one enterprise. This process involves the use of their own strategic assets, ABSTRACT This paper concentrates on how to effectively protect and efficiently use intellectual property under an open innovation model in China. A variety of strategic choices of intellectual property use under an open innovation model are proposed to promote the healthy development of intellectual property operations of enterprises in China. In the knowledge economy era enterprises experience extremely severe competition the intensity of which may be seen in the rate of technology innovation: finally technological innovation can result in the creation of intellectual property (Wu, 2006). " Even great technologies no longer can be relied upon to earn a satisfactory profit before they become commercialized " (Chesbrough, 2007). The effective ways to achieve the commercial value of intellectual property rights relies on the use of intellectual property. An in-depth study of this subject has important theoretical and practical significance for improving the international competitiveness of Chinese enterprises and for protecting their intellectual property rights.