TY  - JOUR
AB  - A self-employed innovator developed and patented a novel combination pen and stylus device to complement the recently released Palm Pilot personal digital assistant. He presented his design to Palm, under a nondisclosure agreement to discuss the market response to the product, and his company, ttools, was subsequently allowed to advertise the device in a monthly e-mail to Palm customers. After ttools' release of the Throttle pen/stylus, Palm and the design firm IDEO introduced a similar pen/stylus device that appeared to infringe on ttools' patent. ttools, being a small, resource-constrained company, was in a precarious position. Its competitive advantage and rights as a patent holder were being threatened. It had few financial resources to draw upon, and thus its livelihood as a company was at stake. Investigates the available options ttools had to respond to Palm and IDEO's actions.
VL  - 
IS  - 
SN  - 2474-6568
DO  - 10.1108/case.kellogg.2016.000382
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/case.kellogg.2016.000382
AU  - Conley James G.
AU  - Qu Feng
AU  - Nudd Geoff
AU  - Marcus J. Cooper
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - ttools (B): The Value of a Patent to the Entrepreneur
T2  - Kellogg School of Management Cases
PB  - Kellogg School of Management
SP  - 1
EP  - 21
Y2  - 2024/05/10
ER  -