You are ready to embark on your first open innovation initiative.  You know what you are looking for and you have identified several potential partners who claim to have the technology expertise you seek.  What is your next step?

A.     Call the external partner and have a chat

B.     Ask the external partner to send numerous tests and reports to demonstrate they can solve your problem

C.     Request samples, free of charge, for you to test

D.     Call the legal department

In fact, the answer is a combination of these choices.  Let’s go back to my mantra of “Put yourself in your partner’s shoes” and run through the options.

If you were the inventor who received a call The Big Corporation, what would be running through your mind?  “I am so lucky that The Big Corporation found my phone number that I will give them whatever they want”?  No! Your first thought is “I have invested my entire life in this great technology and I need to be careful, because if I tell them too much, they will steal my idea and develop it with their deep pockets of funding.” 

Therefore, if you select B and C, the external partner may not welcome you enthusiastically.  And if your legal department (choice D) requires you to send a one-way NDA before you start a dialog, it isn’t likely to be well received either.

The best way to take a mutual first step is (A) to engage in a non-confidential conversation.  To avoid giving your legal team a heart attack, refresh yourself on your company’s policy on non-confidential information exchange.  Generally, both parties can talk about what the technology “does” (performance parameters) without discussing “how” or the specific application.  Solution partners can establish credibility and expertise by sharing examples of other collaborations in similar areas, or their ability to conduct proof of concept or scale concepts.   Seekers can share limiting factors or target timelines without disclosing even their industry.

The goal of this first conversation is to confirm mutual interest – that the seeker and inventor believe the proposed technology is a good match, and that the two parties have the same vision for the framework of their collaboration.  Once this groundwork has been established, it may be appropriate to establish a mutual NDA, exchange samples, share test results and visits.  This first non-confidential conversation lays the foundation for a trusting and balanced relationship between potential partners.

Open innovation is one of those “feel good” initiatives that makes a lot of sense.  Leverage technology to build new capabilities, create openness that results in breakthrough growth, speed up the innovation process…why is everyone in the room smiling except the lawyers?

In most organizations, the legal team is given the responsibility of being the “protector” of the company’s intellectual assets.   There is no greater threat to protecting a company’s intellectual assets than opening the floodgates to a free flow of information, both in and out of the company.  Whereas the dreamy idealists envision an environment of sharing, lawyers envision lawsuits and liabilities.  Clearly, companies that successfully balance these two competing tendencies are the ones that can be most successful leveraging the power of open innovation. 

Here is my mantra for successfully managing IP risk in open innovation:  Put yourself in your partner’s shoes.  I don’t care if you are having a first conversation with a collaborator or trying to define the legal agreement. If you take your partner’s perspective first, you will always create a better collaboration.  An open innovation collaboration is a long term relationship, not a real estate deal.  If there is water in the basement, you will both be knee-deep in water.  If the terms of the collaboration respect both parties’ vital interests, and share both the risk and the reward, you have the fundamentals of a real partnership.

In my next entry, I will discuss a key IP event that can either block or smooth the path to a successful open innovation collaboration.