American Intellectual Property Law Association | Stephen Noe | deputy executive director | Arlington

Before organizations work with customers or others outside the company to develop ideas for new products, both sides need to agree on the way in which any intellectual properties resulting from the collaboration will be divided. “You have to tread carefully,” says Stephen Noe, deputy executive director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association in Arlington, Virginia.

Certainly, these legal and marketing concerns are significant, and companies need to think through them. At some organizations, however, ideas are given consideration only if they’re generated from within, von Hippel says. “Companies have the idea that only they should develop things.”

That’s a mind-set that will need to change if an organization is to thrive long-term.

Current technology is allowing more users and customers to participate, to varying degrees, in developing the products they buy and use. For instance, consumers can go online to configure the cars they’d like to buy and to design the jeans they’d like to wear.

While chances are slim that we’ll revert to the days when we built our own furniture and grew our own food, the prevalence of user innovation is likely to keep rising. People like that they can get products that more precisely fit their needs. “It’s kind of another industrial revolution,” says Franke.
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