Rational Design Rights Ignorance

摘要

Organizations that sustain competitive advantage are theoretically regarded as a set of discrete and linked activities. Various and distinct intellectual property rights, in theory, are similarly expected to yield advantage through linkages. In practice, however, this seldom occurs. To examine and explain this paradox, this research examines firms experiencing RDRI. The conclusion is that various value-creating activities, acting independently, negatively impact the firm's ability to secure complimentary product design rights. Each department behaves rationally from its own perspective. In the process, property rights are forfeited due to the inability to bridge the intersecting doctrines of nonfunctionality and secondary meaning as broadly defined in Traffix and Wal-Mart.