To cite this version:Cécile Ayerbe, Nathalie Lazaric, Michel Callois, Liliana Mitkova. The new challenges of organizing intellectual property in complex industries: a discussion based on the case of Thales. Technovation, Elsevier, 2014, 34, pp. Abstract:The defence industries in France and elsewhere have, in recent years, undergone important technological, organizational and institutional changes that have profoundly altered their architectures. These changes have introduced a new division of labour bringing new opportunities for interaction leading to the creation of additional assets. In this context, the issue of protecting innovations and their exploitation has become central. Managing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) requires industrial groups to draw on additional capabilities. This article analyzes these evolutions and focuses in particular on the new organizational arrangements that have accompanied them. Using the case of Thales, which in 2005 outsourced its Intellectual Property (IP), we answer questions such as: why should IP be outsourced; how should the outsourcing of IP activities be organized; and, how should capabilities involved in this new organizational arrangement be managed. These issues lie at the centre of this research and illustrate new challenges inherent to in-house and outsourced IPR management strategies.

L’industrie de la défense, en France comme à l’étranger, a connu ces dernières années de nombreuses mutations. Ces changements ont introduit une nouvelle division du travail qui fournit des possibilités d’interaction renouvelées pour créer des actifs complémentaires. Dans ce contexte, la question de la protection des innovations et de leur valorisation est devenue centrale. Elle s’impose avec d’autant plus d’acuité que la gestion des DPI requiert des compétences nouvelles pour les groupes industriels. Cet article analyse ces évolutions et met l’accent sur les nouveaux arrangements organisationnels qui y sont liés. L’étude du cas de Thales, qui a externalisé en 2005 une grande partie de la gestion de sa propriété intellectuelle, est emblématique de ces changements. Comment comprendre cette modification des activités a priori si sensibles que la protection ? Telle est la question centrale de cette recherche qui analyse les motivations et les conséquences du choix de l’externalisation de la protection sur la gestion des DPI.

The objective of this paper is to understand why the pace of technical change has been slower in the defense and space industries than in semiconductors. To answer this question, we adopt an inductive method that exploits historical facts and patent statistics to provide empirical data. Basing our rationale on the appropriation and structural inertia arguments, we show that the constraints imposed by reliability in the defense and space industries impedes the appropriation of supra profits from innovation and thus slows the pace of technical change. The main managerial implication of this result is that technical inertia contributes to competitive success when the reliability constraint reaches high levels.