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7. Anticipate market and technology shifts: Even the best-laid product development plans and market strategies won't prevent loss of market share and margin erosion if a company is un-prevented for shifts in technology or market demand. A patent strategy can help companies anticipate those shifts and then respond with new products and services.

The other side of the story: India acceding traditional knowledge to global players. More than 40 patents have been issued to laboratories in the US and Europe for neem pesticides.

The awakening of the potential* - In September 1997, India challenges Ricetec, which had obtained a patent for calling aromatic rice grown outside India as basmati and selling it under any brand name.
- In 1993, CSIR challenged the validity of a patent for use of turmeric to heal wounds filed by two American scientists of Indian origin.
- CSIR is filing patents on traditional medicine.

8. Reduce risk: As a vital source of competitive intelligence, the information contained in patents can also help companies steer their R&D and M&A programs around infringement and due diligence potholes.

Among commentators on corporate strategy, it is widely accepted that knowledge and competence are useful things for a company to have. At times, particular approaches to the acquisition and profitable exploitation of productive knowledge - such as the experience curve - have been the central focus of strategic discussion. At other times, explicit attention to the place of knowledge considerations in the strategic pictures has waned; perhaps to the point where such issues have dropped through the cracks of strategic analysis.

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* Source: http://www.angelfire.com/mi/libertyinstitute/st2of1.html.

* Contributed by: -
Dr. R. P. Verma,
Ex. H.O.D. & Dean, Commerce and Business Management Dept.,
Arabinda Bhandari,
Strategic Management Researcher,
Ranchi University, Ranchi.