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The IP Paradox: Why Exclusivity is the Secret Weapon for Scaling Social Impact
An argument that intellectual property protects social enterprises rather than working against them, first presented at KPMG's Gen2050 session on IP for sustainability solutions.
Patrick Ng, Venture Creation Instructor & Deep-Tech Mentor
Social enterprises often treat intellectual property as the opposite of their mission: impact depends on diffusion, IP on exclusivity. Patrick Ng argues the opposite, using Sens, a lotus silk venture from the 2024 SUSS Impact Startup Challenge in Vietnam, to show how an unprotected social model can be copied and stripped of its mission by a purely commercial player.
His "Protect & Scale" model treats protection as a way to keep the social mission attached to the idea, and a defensible position as what attracts funding, partners and talent. He contrasts it with cases where maximum diffusion is the right strategy, such as Litre of Light's open-sourced designs and OpenDevelopment Mekong's Creative Commons data. The piece was first presented at KPMG's Gen2050 session on IP for sustainability solutions.
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