Service production and intellectual property

Service firms and sectors are emerging as important players in the innovati on process. The intangible nature of many service innovations creates chall enges for Intellectual Property Right (IPR) systems. IPR systems both shape and are shaped by structural changes in the economy, and the technologies being employed. It is well known that many service firms do not patent, and that the patent system has largely been developed to deal with more tangib le innovations. This study considers the issues that arise in this context. It presents empirical material concerning the management of knowledge, inn ovation, and Intellectual Property in Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS). Different branches of the service sector are founded on very diffe rent knowledge bases; and there are also persistent differences in the acti vities performed by service firms of different sizes. Accordingly, though t hey have much in common where it comes to the management of expertise and t he use of Information Technology (IT), they may follow dissimilar innovatio n trajectories, and adopt highly variegated strategies.