Background, foreground, sideground and postground intellectual property explained

In the context of research and development (R&D) collaborations, background, foreground, sideground and postground intellectual property (IP) are four distinct forms of intellectual property assets. These are included in the broader and more general categories of knowledge in R&D collaborations or open innovation. While background and foreground IP and knowledge are fairly established concepts, sideground and postground IP and knowledge have more recently been added to the conceptual vocabulary. This set of four concepts was first introduced by Prof. Ove Granstrand in a European Commission report in 2001.^[1]

The four knowledge/IP types are defined by Granstrand and Holgersson (2014):^[2]

• Background knowledge/IP is knowledge/IP that is relevant to a collaborative venture or open innovation project that is supplied by the partners at the start of the project.
• Foreground knowledge/IP is all the knowledge/IP produced within the collaborative venture or open innovation project during the project’s tenure.
• Sideground knowledge/IP is knowledge/IP that is relevant to a collaborative venture or open innovation project, but produced outside the project by any of the partners during the project’s tenure.
• Postground knowledge/IP is knowledge/IP that is relevant to a collaborative venture or open innovation project that is produced by any of the partners after the project ends.

Further reading

• Web site: Background, Foreground and Sideground IP; Whence, What and Why? . Wilkof . Neil . 7 June 2010 . . 14 January 2013.
• Collaborative R&D in New Materials Innovation – Challenges for the Management of Knowledge and Appropriability . Gresse . Christopher . Gredel . Daniel . DRUID-DIME Academy Winter 2008 PhD Conference on Economics and Management of Innovation and Organizational Change . Bader (2006) distinguishes four forms of IP: background, foreground, sideground and postground IP. . 14 . 14 January 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141221165327/http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewpaper.php?id=1916&cf=28 . 21 December 2014 . dead .
• Book: Bader, Martin . 2006 . Intellectual Property Management in R&D Collaborations: The Case of the Service Industry Sector . Heidelberg . Physica-Verlag .

Notes and References

1. Ove Granstrand. 2001 . IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Aspects of Internet Collaborations . European Commission . 16 February 2017 .
2. Granstrand . Ove . Holgersson . Marcus . 2014 . The challenge of closing open innovation: The intellectual property disassembly problem . Research-Technology Management . 57 . 5 . 19–25 . 10.5437/08956308X5705258. 154502366 .