Walking into the Room with IP: Exploring Start-ups’ IP Licensing Strategy

“Certainly to be able to walk into the room with IP […] that is an advantage” The paper explores trends and features of one of the most visible IP management practices, IP licensing, in the context of start-ups, accessing external technology at the outset of their lifetime. In particular, it compares start-ups and incumbent firms, in terms of licensing strategy pursued, role of in-licensed technologies relative to the internal innovation process and IP management strategies successively implemented. A mixed-method study is presented using quantitative data on licensing deals from the USA SEC and cases on start-up companies involved in in-bound technology licensing. Evidence indicates start-ups have different IP licensing strategies than incumbents and their successive IP management strategies are more flexible than for incumbents.