Intellectual property strategy for the ecosystem of the internet of things

In this paper we explored the internet of things (IoT) ecosystem and the intellectual property (IP) strategies of Taiwanese firms. A questionnaire survey and interviews with high-ranking managers of IoT firms offered insight in this study. Our contribution is adding the multi-supply context to the multi-invention context, introducing the ecosystem to the formulation of the IoT IP strategy, and the argument that the profitability of IoT firms is shifting from the individual firm basis to the entire ecosystem basis. We argue that IoT IP strategies must support this trend and consider aligning IP strategy with the IoT ecosystem, utilising multi-IP protection, integrating IP strategy with industry solutions and monitoring the litigation trigger point. These resultant strategies will prove helpful to IoT firms in formulating a practical IP strategy.