To see the invisible world of intellectual property you need an entirely new lens. For us that means purpose-built power tools that allow us to zoom through the intellectual property network. In our book, we showed some pictures of these networks, but due to the limitations of the medium, they were simple, black & white, and static. With the graphical possibilities of the Internet, we are able to show you these images in greater detail, demonstrate the concept of zooming, and even provide video clips to allow you to experience it yourself.

For now we present the images of the book in full color, but shortly we will be adding additional images and video clips. Stay tuned!

Qualcomm’s Invisible Edge

In Chapter 3 we tell the story of Qualcomm and its invention of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology which enables all of the 3rd Generation wireless technologies that we use today. The image below (taken from Chapter 4) shows the network of intellectual property which reveals the competitive landscape of the wireless telecom industry. Each node represents a company’s patent portfolio (in this case patents that are necessary to build WCDMA cell phones) and the links show how frequently each company’s patents cite the patents of the others.

From this picture, it is immediately obvious that Qualcomm is the central player in this technology ecosystem, and it isn’t the least bit surprising that their position has enabled them to generate several billion dollars per year in licensing revenue – much of it from the other companies represented in this network.

Click image to enlarge

Gillette’s Network of Innovation

In Chapter 5, we explain why Gillette’s razor business is more profitable than printing money. Really! It cost the U.S. mint about 4 cents to print each dollar bill – Gillette’s margins on replacement blades are higher. How is this possible? The answer of course is
that Gillette has developed an invisible edge based on several decades of shaving innovation and the ownership of those inventions through intellectual property.

Gillette’s inventions don’t result from some managerial edict; they come from its team of inventors which is pictured here. In this network, each node represents the patents from a single inventor, and the connections show the collaborations between them. So tomorrow morning when you’re facing yourself in the mirror, or you pick up your razor in the shower, remember that we have Bob Trotta and rest of the Gillette inventor team to thank for turning a morning blood-letting into the pleasant experience it has become.

Click image to enlarge

Toyota’s Innovation Keiretsu

The U.S. auto industry has been in trouble for years, so much so that they require a Congressional bailout just to survive. Meanwhile, the performance of Toyota and other Japanese auto makers has been extraordinary by comparison. How can this be?

Using the IP lens allows us to see one of the major differences that drives their differential performance. The picture below compares the innovation keiretsus of Toyota and Ford. The networks show the joint ownership of patents held by each company. One look and it is easy to see what was once invisible. Toyota has developed a rich network of collaborative innovation by sharing the ownership of the property rights that result. Ford? Not so much. That difference between the way Ford and Toyota manage their supplier relationships has led to dramatic differences in the performance of the two companies as we describe in Chapter 6.

Click image to enlarge

Remaking Mozilla

If you are old enough you will likely remember Netscape Navigator as an early Internet browser that competed with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). Well by the late 1990s, Navigator could no longer compete with an IE product that was bundled with Windows. In a last ditch effort to save Navigator (and the company), Netscape made a bold strategic decision – they would open up the software code and invite programmers outside the company to modify, improve, and maintain it.

But a funny thing happened when Netscape re-launched its Open Source browser as Mozilla – Nobody came to the party! As you can see from the “before” image below, the Mozilla code was so complicated (what programmers call spaghetti code) that it was virtually impossible for outside programmers to master. Each small change in the code would have ripple effects to numerous other parts of the system. As a result, Mozilla was unable to attract a community of outside developers. During 1998, Netscape undertook a project which would dramatically simplify the architecture of the Mozilla product (as shown in the “after” picture below). When they did, it suddenly became possible for outside programmers to participate. The result is that today, Mozilla – now known as the browser Firefox – is the fastest growing Internet browser in the world and continues to take market share from IE.

Click image to enlarge

There's more to come

Come back again soon and we hope to have additional images, and even video clips that allow you to visualize the invisible landscape of modern IP competition.

These images were created using the N-Compass IP patent visualization engine developed in collaboration between 3LP Advisors, The Boston Consulting Group, and Touch Graph, LLC.