Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice Advance Access originally published online on November 11, 2008
Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 2009 4(1):57-66; doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpn207
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
Creating the missing link: applying collective marks to create clusters
Legal context: Collective trademarks offer an adequate institutional setting to create clusters. The legal framework provided by this form of IP right offers an enabling environment for the creation of cooperative business arrangements, as applied in clusters. In particular, they allow small- and medium-sized enterprises to intensify their degree of interaction, so to build up networks, thus reducing costs and dependence on large firms, while at the same time increasing systems of collaboration.
Key points: While the positive externalities provided by clusters are well researched, the IP aspect has been largely ignored. This is observed in theory, as well as in practice. While the business literature is rich on empirical and theoretical arguments on the functioning of clusters, the role IP law takes in the creation of clusters has gone largely unnoticed.
Practical significance: This article seeks to provide the missing link and explain why, how, and under which circumstances the application of collective trademarks is a crucial element for the creation of clusters. While the first part of this paper provides the theoretical underpinning, the second part offers an overview of various empirical illustrations of the argument.
Correspondence: * Email: ghafele{at}haas.berkeley.edu. R Ghafele, PhD, is an international research scholar at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. I would like to thank Washington University, which circulated a note via email on ‘strategy options for developing countries in the context of collective marks’ to friends, colleagues, and the interested community, which triggered a range of helpful comments, suggestions, and reactions. I would further like to thank Professor Walter Santagata with whom I prepared a discussion note on ‘collective trademarks and cultural tourism’ in 2006, which provided the theoretical underpinning of certain paragraphs of the theoretical part of this article.