Innovation and IP Strategy for Sustainable Mobility

I spoke at the Global Intellectual Property Conference (https://www.iprconference.com/) - at Bangalore, last week - on the topic of crafting an Innovation & IP Strategy for Sustainable Mobility.

There is a fundamental shift on all three dimensions - Technology, Innovation and IP - in the automotive industry with the emergence of electric, autonomous, connected vehicles and shared ownership models.

Automotive industry has been disrupted in the past - it took less than twenty years (1900 - 1920) to replace horses by automobiles.

The automotive industry is going through the second wave of disruption now - it is swifter and fueled by faster adoption.

The technology innovation will involve many players across the industry - cross collaboration is the key strategy to success - need to synchronize innovation & NPD cycles.

There is a shift in IP strategy also - some of the lead players are opening their patents - Tesla in EV and Toyota in Hydrogen Fuel Cell - the old 5+ years patent grant cycle is not supportive of the fast product development. Elon Musk has famously removed the wall of Patents at Tesla and replaced it by a posters "All our Patents are belong to you".

Elon Musk emphasizes the urgency for bringing in sustainable mobility technologies - electric, autonomous and connected vehicles - with a powerful analogy of throwing the water out of a sinking ship - we need to share the bucket design with others to save ourselves - no one can do it alone. This is a powerful thought.

It was a great experience to attend the 10th GIPC conference along with my team members - thanks Ram, Jeremy, Bala, Dayan and Mahesh - for your excellent research and analytic support.

Thanks Professor Heinz Goddar for chairing the session and moderating the panel discussion.