Summit TV takes a look at intellectual property in a 13 part series with leading specialists on the topic. The fifth show features Ronald Zink from Microsoft on how maintaining product integrity through intellectual property management benefits the consumer

Transcript

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Welcome to Intellectual Property on Summit TV. We’ve discussed the role and value of intellectual property (IP) for companies and businesses, but it’s also important for consumers where expectations are created. I’m joined in the studio by Ronald Zink, associate general counsel for Microsoft, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ronald, we spoke in previous episodes about why companies should take intellectual property seriously - but what is the situation from a consumer point of view?

RONALD ZINK: Consumers benefit from intellectual property in a number of ways. Sometimes it’s not at the forefront of their thinking - that a product is here because of intellectual property - but intellectual property provides the incentive and ongoing investment for companies to look towards products that customers would want.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: If I’m a consumer for example - you’re from Microsoft and I see the Microsoft logo - then that means something to me, and I can expect something from that product…

RONALD ZINK: Yes, the idea of a brand or a trademark on a brand would be that those goods or services come from a particular company that you trust and know - and you’re more apt to if you’ve had a good experience buy from them again.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Microsoft is a huge company and you develop a number of products - you’re also engaging in taking over other businesses to incorporate that into your brand - what is the role of intellectual property in that creative process?

RONALD ZINK: We use intellectual property to protect our business, and to meet our business objectives. Mostly that is from a licensing standpoint - we use that to collaborate with customers and partners, and even our competitors in order to bring products to market and make sure they’re licensed appropriately.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: One area that’s quite interesting for me is this whole concept of open innovation - the whole notion of working together and opening up some of your supply chains and so forth - how do you see that from a Microsoft point of view?

RONALD ZINK: For the computer and technology industry most innovation is built on what other people have done before - so it’s hard to go it alone if you will. Everything builds from each other - even Microsoft relies on partners and customers, licensing and eventually intellectual property to create this business. So you move from that one point - is it proprietary, or is it maybe open source. There's a middle ground where people are collaborating - and it’s open innovation - but there is protection for that collaboration as well.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: When you mention open source for example - do you see from a software development point of view that there’s been a lot more maturity in the development now of open source and how people perceive that compared to the traditional non-open source products?

RONALD ZINK: I think there has. The products are better. I think it’s interesting to distinguish open source as a model to develop software from open source - as people used to talk about a business model for doing business. Those are a little bit different. Microsoft even has embraced open source in some respects - we have an open source development lab in our headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and we have some interoperability labs too in order to work better with open source products including Novell’s Linux distribution.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: In one of our previous issues we looked at the different forms of intellectual property - patents, trademarks, etcetera - what does a typical portfolio of Microsoft’s intellectual property look like? What kind of things do you work with?

RONALD ZINK: It’s across the board. My original role at Microsoft was more on the patent side - as I’ve been in the company longer I’ve broadened out. We use patents to look at the functionality, copyrights are more on the expression of course - and that’s the mechanism we’ll use for things like piracy. If you’re worried about people not having genuine software copyright is the perfect mechanism to help you with that. Then the trademark gets to the branding issue you brought up before and the source of goods. I guess it’s a very important brand - the Windows brand and the Microsoft brand obviously are big issues for us and important to protect.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: I understand the protection side and if I’m a consumer you mention this issue of branding - what is the message that you want to convey by means of this trademark in the minds of your consumers?

RONALD ZINK: I think it’s quality and service. Those are probably the primary drivers for that. People understand when you’re working with the company you will have those available - and it’s worth hopefully the price they’re paying for that service or that product.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Often people when they think about branding are very much into the creative side - the catchy phrase that must sound good - but surely as you mention there has to be some form of delivery as well? There needs to be something in the back office that supports the brand promise you’re creating - is that so?

RONALD ZINK: It depends on who is going to drive the company. You could have the marketing people come up with something that is super spectacular - that everyone wants to buy - but if the R&D people can’t deliver on that product there's a big disconnect so there's give and take in that regard…

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Thinking now in terms of piracy that’s therefore not only confined to the issue of cutting into your revenue stream - it affects the brand promise. Does that make sense?

RONALD ZINK: That’s the genuine software idea - that you are getting what you pay for, and it doesn’t have issues in the source code. For software you might worry about viruses and things like that - in the pharmaceutical industry you might worry about the goods and is it bad for you if you’re not quite sure where it’s from. It does have a consumer aspect that goes beyond just the pricing issue.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Your involvement in South Africa especially on the open innovation side and the involvement with SMEs and so on - what is Microsoft’s strategy for South Africa in that regard?

RONALD ZINK: We’re very excited about the things that are going on in South Africa - the work towards a knowledge based economy. The Department of Science & Technology has a 10-year plan it’s announced to move forward in some of these regards. I think it’s ambitious - but it’s exciting. I think Microsoft with the time we’ve spent on intellectual property thinking about this - and our local team here can help to the extent that’s wanted. We are more than happy to do that so I’m excited about where that’s going.