On Speculation about Difference andSimilarity between a Company, aUniversity, and a Sightseeing City fromthe Aspect of Business Schemes on
Digital Intellectual Assets
Kiyoshi NAKANO, Professor,
Osaka City University, Osaka-shi,Osaka-fu, JAPAN(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,JAPAN 20041

Items in This Presentation• e-Business and Brand • Enterprise (R & D
Oriented Enterprise) as
Brand Business• Content Business andAdvanced Payment• University as BrandBusiness• Limit of Legal
Protection of Content• Tourist (Sightseeing) or
Branded Town/City as• Mutual Benefit
Brand Businessbetween Content andBrand(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO,OSAKA-CU,
2• Conclusion
JAPAN 2004

e-Business (including physical productretail business) and Brand (Ch.2 Sc.2)
Significance of "brand"is larger in e-businessthan in physical world
business
Physicale-businessworld
business
Risk

Type ofpayment

Risk

Advanced Consumer : Can I
payment certainly get the
product ?
Payment Seller : Can I
certainly get theafterfee ?
delivery

Risk

Guarantee of Quality

Content /ServiceBrand

Brand

Brand
Guarantee of(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,
JAPAN 2004 Payment and Delivery

3

Content Business and Advanced Payment(Ch.2 Sc.1)May the same ones May we return / cancel
after experiencing thesometimes bebought repeatedly ? products / services ?

Kind of Goods

Physical Products

Yes

Yes / No

ContentProduct/ServiceBusinessInformation

NoNo

EntertainmentContent Package

NoNo (Sometimes brows-Entertainment
PerformanceYes

ing or trial listening
would be permitted)

No

Brands of the contents / services are more important than in the case of real products.

Guarantee of Quality

Content /(c)Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,
ServiceJAPAN 2004

Brand4

Limit of Legal Protection of Content (Ch.3 Sc. 1)• Finiteness of Legal Protection Period (For example in Japan)
application registration

TechnicalPatent

15 years
20 yearscrearation publication

Author's crearation
Rightcrearation

application registration
15 years
20 years

author's death
50 yearspublication
50 years

ones created byan enterprise

publication
70 years

movie• Limits of Actual Legal Power– Copyright Piracy Epidemic with e.g. P2P file exchange(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,
5systems
JAPAN 2004

Mutual Benefit between Contentand Brand (Ch.3 Sc. 1)
Content Enhancement by Brand
Guarantee of Quality

ContentBrandBrand Enhancement by ContentEmpowermentof the Brand(Excellent)Content

Brand
Non-duplicable
Goods(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,
JAPAN 2004

Guaranteeof Quality

6Enterprise (R & D Oriented Enterprise) as
Brand Business (Ch.3 Sc. 4)
Earlier phase

Transition
phase

Later phase

Available typeof e-business・e-businesssupportbusiness(empoweredby thetechnologybrand)State

Patent period

After the patent
expiredKey ofdifferentiation

Technical content +PatentTechnical content +Technology Brand

Patented
Technology
1938
Technologyof TEFLON

Empowerment( valuetransfer )1945〜
Trademark
TEFLON

TechnologyBrand

Empowerment( valuetransfer )CorporateBrand

1802〜and・Central player in e-business
DuPont(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,7 )(empowered by the corporate brandJAPAN 2004

University as Brand Business (Ch.3 Sc. 3)
Earlier phase

Transition phase

Later phase

Available
type of ebusiness

State

Immediately after
the development ofeducational content

Other universities
can imitate thecontents in alegal way.*

After otheruniversities
imitated thecontentseLearning

Key ofdifferentiation

Original educational
content + Academic
degreeEducational
content +Branded degree

CourseContent

Empowerment( value transfer )UniversityBrand* ・Buying the textbooks
・Quoting the thesis and criticize them in papers(c) Kiyoshi
NAKANO,them
OSAKA-CU,・Get the idea from the thesis
and describe
in another way

8JAPAN 2004

Tourist (Sightseeing) or Branded Town/City
as Brand Business (Ch.3 Sc. 5)(Like Kyoto or Kanazawa in Japan)
Earlier phase

Transition
phase

Later phase

Available typeof e-business・Supplier ofgoods for ebusiness・Licensing toplayers in ebusiness

State

Immediately after
designing theproducts

After anothertown/city imitated

Key ofdifferentiation

Product content +Rarity (Uniqueness)

Product content +Mark of origin

Quality ofProductContentEmpowerment( valuetransfer )Mark of Origin(Town/cityBrand)*(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,
JAPAN 2004

*Precisely, usually in Japan,
town/city names cannot beregistered as trade/service
marks, but can be protected
as marks of origin by Unfair
Competition Prevention Law.
9Conclusion• A brand is very important in e-business. It is also very
important in content business.
• A periods of legal protection of a content is limited.
However, one of brands (trademarks / service marks) issemi-eternal.
• Universities, R & D oriented enterprises and tourist (sightseeing) towns / cities can be treated as content businessin a wide meaning.
• In such kinds of business, the power of laws of patent,
author's right and marks of origin are limited. However,if the players can transfer the value of contents to theirbrands they can get strong competition power.
(c) Kiyoshi NAKANO, OSAKA-CU,
JAPAN 2004

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