COACHING CORNER:
The Right Path?
Understanding technology consortia and their
importance to your business
writinG by :: franK X. curci
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onsider the
following
scenario: Late
one afternoon
you receive a
frantic call from one of your
company’s engineers. He
or she wants to join a new
technology consortium to
allow your company to align its
R&D efforts with what appears
to be an emerging industry
standard. The problem is the
engineer needs your approval
“right away” to allow the
company to become a member
of the consortium because it’s
having a critical technology
meeting tomorrow.
The engineer e-mails you
a copy of the consortium’s
membership agreement, which
looks fairly straightforward, so
you authorize your company’s
participation as a new member.
Unknowingly, you may have
just compromised some of
your company’s most lucrative
proprietary technology.
c
even research institutions
because such participation
can give you a “voice” in the
R&D that might impact your
industry for years to come.
However, every company needs
to evaluate the specific pros
and cons of participating—or
not participating—in any
particular consortium.
Some potential benefits of
participating in a consortium
Defining Consortia
Technology consortia
are generally defined as
collaborative efforts among
companies and other key
players (such as research
institutions) in a particular
industry that collectively
try to address and solve
key technology or research
challenges.
Some technology consortia,
for example, are formed
to create “standards”
that facilitate greater
compatibility among the
various technologies in that
space, so that the industry
can collectively develop
increasingly innovative
products. Other consortia
may be formed to address
research roadblocks, which are
challenging an entire industry
sector. In many of these
situations, the consortium
members—who are often
fierce competitors—are
voluntarily coming together to
collaboratively solve significant
obstacles that are holding back
the next generation of research
and development. Many sectors
of the technology industry
have seen a rapid growth in
the number of technology
consortia, including
the hardware, software,
semiconductor, wireless, and
life sciences industries.
How a particular consortium functions and the specifics of its membership can have
a profound effect on your
company’s business and your
intellectual property rights.
So, before you join any consortium, you should always take a
closer look at the business and
legal ramifications of
your participation.
The decision
to join a
consortium is
fraught with
complexity
and should
not be
undertaken
lightly.
-Frank X. Curci
Benefits of Participation
Though technology consortia
are often promoted by major
technology companies,
membership can benefit small
to midsize companies and
include increased market
acceptance of your technology,
the ability to help create new
technologies that would not
exist absent broad industry
collaboration, and the ability
to spread substantial research
and development costs across
multiple consortium members.
