Funding agency: University of Toronto Bell University Labs
Principal Investigators:
Introduction and Overview
The objective of the project is to develop a modelling technique to
support systematic analysis of Intellectual Property (IP) and Patent Portfolio
Management (PPM) issues. The project is part of a research agenda
in the Knowledge Management Lab (KM Lab) to develop advanced techniques
for managing knowledge in organizations facing today’s complex and fast-paced
environments.
The starting point of the research will be the i* framework for modelling
strategic dependencies and rationales. i* provides modelling constructs
to support analysis and reasoning about complex social relationships in
multi-agent settings. Agents have intentional properties such as
goals, beliefs, abilities, and commitments. They are strategic in
that dependencies among them can lead to opportunities as well as vulnerabilities.
i* has been applied to a number of areas including information systems
analysis and business process reengineering. This project will
carry out the technical research needed to apply, adapt, and extend i*
to deal with IP and PPM. Significant challenges include the much
higher complexity of the knowledge in this area, rapid and frequent changes
in the knowledge, and the need to represent knowledge from diverse communities
and disciplines (technology, business, legal, strategy, etc.) and to support
communication across these disciplines.
Expected research results include modelling techniques, methodologically
guidelines, and supporting tools.