Markets for Technology: Challenges and Opportunities

Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
8:30 AM to 5:30 PM

Markets for technology play an important role for both management and society. For management, such markets represent important opportunities to earn returns either by selling knowledge and related assets to others, or from commercializing knowledge assets acquired from others. More generally, technology markets advance social welfare by enabling a fuller exploitation of the division of labor between those most capable of invention and those most capable of commercializing those inventions. Moreover, by underpinning such a division of labor, markets for technology strengthen the incentives to invent.
It appears that markets for technology have grown rapidly over the past two decades. This growth is associated with the proliferation of technology-based startups spanning the life science and information technology sectors, as well as the inclusion of new institutional actors such as universities and other nonprofit research institutions. Moreover, even large, established firms have increasingly availed themselves of the growing opportunities to both sell and acquire technology.

Duke University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Fuqua School of Business is hosting a one-day symposium, “Markets for Technology: Challenges and Opportunities.” World-class experts on the operation of technology markets will review the changes that have occurred in contracting, licensing and related practices over the past two decades, and anticipate what best practice will look like in the coming years. The symposium will also consider the impediments to the growth and diffusion of well-functioning technology markets, and what management and government might do to address these impediments.

Keynotes will include:

Marshall Phelps, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property at the Microsoft Corporation, and Executive-in-Residence at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, will speak on: “Technology Markets: The Opportunities Ahead.”
Linda Sanford, IBM’s Senior Vice President for Enterprise on Demand Transformation and Information Technology, will speak on “Collaborative Innovation.”

The two panel discussions will treat:

“The Transformation of Technology Markets and Best Practices Looking Forward.”
“Impediments to Technology Markets: What are they, and what can firms and government do?”

The symposium is intended to engage business, law, engineering and science students, scholars and other university faculty with interests in venture creation and business and technology strategy, scholars and faculty concerned with intellectual property and related policies, corporate and independent patent counsels, executives concerned with corporate business development and the startup community. The panels will be structured to elicit extensive dialogue between the experts and the audience. The symposium will also be recorded for distribution via the web.

Registration

Please fill out the online form here to register. There is no cost to attend.

Pre-registration closes on Wednesday, February 13, 2008. Space is limited.