Once, the thought of offering up internal research that has no future at a company to another business was unthinkable. Today, the idea of tossing out unproductive research is akin to taking dollar bills and setting them on fire. Even Microsoft has offered some of its internal research up to startups such as Inrix once it realized it had no use for it. As this article from CNET News.com points out the idea of open innovation has gained considerable ground in technology circles and should enable new ideas and business models well into this century.

Tech Confidential documented one side of the open innovation trend, with an article about IBM creating partnerships with customers to make their ideas into products. When it comes to old-line businesses, Corporate Dealmaker has profiled Procter & Gamble Co.'s attempts to welcome open innovation into its R&D labs. It's a trend that has been brewing for a while, but I'm not sure we'll see IP moving freely among companies as the News.com article optimistically suggests. Likely, we'll see something more akin to America's relatively open immigration policy where there will be the equivalent of visas and documentation, but technology and IP will still be accessible to many. — Stacey Higginbotham

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