Patent Expiry and Pharmaceutical Market Opportunities at the Nexus of Pricing and Innovation Policy - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 261

( 1999 ) observed that companies typically concentrate their activities on patents
when thinking of intellectual property and do not consider the possibilities of
using more than just patents. Through focused case studies on IBM, Coca Cola, and
others, he observed that intellectual property rights regimes, when managed and
coordinated may compliment and substitute each other in terms of market place
advantage and increase the fi rm's total asset value, summarized as “multiprotection
systems and total IP strategies” (Granstrand 1999 ).
Economists Allegrezza and Guard-Rauchs ( 1999 ) highlighted the distinctive
features of trademarks that in theory allow companies to appropriate the rents or
margins from product innovations (especially when linked with patents) for an
unlimited time. The property monopoly beyond the patent life would be limited to
trademark source identity rights but would indeed live as long as the mark is used
and conceivably beyond the life of any particular limited life patent, copyright, or
secret. These researchers use survey techniques to examine the trademarking behav-
ior of a broad grouping of over 2,500 companies from within the Benelux countries.
The results of this study also show that Benelux fi rms applying for trademarks tend
to have high R&D expenditures and a larger workforce, similar to results of studies
on patents. Factors such as trademark awareness within a company, likelihood of
product imitation, and the level of competitor monitoring also seem to have a
signifi cant effect on awareness. The relation between patents and trademarks is not
directly accounted for in his survey. Differentiation of products combined with an
enduring brand loyalty, higher market entry barriers, and market positioning within
a certain product sector are suggested to enable the registrant to higher margins and
returns. This is also shown by the relationship between a product and the providing
fi rm via a registered symbol (ensured by trademark protection) which compliments
the protection of an innovation through patents. The Registration of trademarks
(only used by half of the companies surveyed in his study) offers the necessary
juridical possibilities to shield the differentiation legally against unfair competition
as patents enable the registrant to protect technology innovation.
In the legal management literature, Conley and Scozoboscan ( 2001 ) character-
ized the proactive management of multiple IP regimes across the life cycle of an
offering in a manner that sustained the value of the initial innovation as value trans-
ference . In theory transference could occur from any limited life regime, patent to
trademark or copy right to trademark. Case study examples discussed include the
branding of the omeprazole molecule invention (patent) as the purple pill (trade
dress, mark) and the securing of the original image of Disney's Snow White (copy-
right 1937) 6 as a Character Mark (2001 application). 7
In the law review literature, Parchomovsky and Siegelman ( 2002 ) focus on
“leveraging patents though trademarks”: the combination of patents and trademark
protection may have two main benefi ts for a fi rm: the exclusivity secured by the
patent might lower the marketing costs of creating a strong brand and simplify the
6 Copyright on Disneys original animated version of the Snow White story dates back to 1937.
7 Disney's image of the Snow White registered as a US trademark in 2005.