BADM 449 HW 6
1. Why did Charles Goodyear fail to profit from the discovery of rubber vulcanization? How would you assess his commercialization efforts?
Charles Goodyear failed to profit from his discovery of rubber vulcanization because he shared too much information about his invention prior to receiving a patent. Also, he should not have given licenses out over beginning his own manufacturing process. Goodyear was too hasty with his commercialization. He would borrow money and then go out on a limb trying to promote his rubber, while spilling out tips on how to imitate it all the while. Then when his plan did not work, he would fall into debt, which at this point in time meant temporary prison. Considering Goodyear went through this process over and over, my assessment of his commercialization efforts is poor. If a process does not work the first time, then it should not be repeated.
2. To what extent were Goodyear's problems due to a lack of strategic decisions versus a failure in the institutions that support intellectual property?
While the institutions that give out the patents seem very hard to work with and pretty difficult to logistically figure out, Goodyear could have potentially been successful if he laid out a plan involving strategic decisions. However, his decisions were more like instincts that he just kept going with. Instead of leaking his rubber to France prior to getting a patent, he should have been more cautious. In addition, since Goodyear had spent so many years working with rubber, I would think that he would have known who Thomas Hancock was and about how Hancock deemed it impossible to rid rubber of its stickiness before giving up on the rubber industry. Therefore, he should have been way more cautious when sharing his samples of completed this impossible action with Hancock, since Hancock was able to imitate the sample so easily. I like to think that Goodyear was a good man and just liked to see the best in others; however, I think it was his lack
Charles Goodyear failed to profit from his discovery of rubber vulcanization because he shared too much information about his invention prior to receiving a patent. Also, he should not have given licenses out over beginning his own manufacturing process. Goodyear was too hasty with his commercialization. He would borrow money and then go out on a limb trying to promote his rubber, while spilling out tips on how to imitate it all the while. Then when his plan did not work, he would fall into debt, which at this point in time meant temporary prison. Considering Goodyear went through this process over and over, my assessment of his commercialization efforts is poor. If a process does not work the first time, then it should not be repeated.
2. To what extent were Goodyear's problems due to a lack of strategic decisions versus a failure in the institutions that support intellectual property?
While the institutions that give out the patents seem very hard to work with and pretty difficult to logistically figure out, Goodyear could have potentially been successful if he laid out a plan involving strategic decisions. However, his decisions were more like instincts that he just kept going with. Instead of leaking his rubber to France prior to getting a patent, he should have been more cautious. In addition, since Goodyear had spent so many years working with rubber, I would think that he would have known who Thomas Hancock was and about how Hancock deemed it impossible to rid rubber of its stickiness before giving up on the rubber industry. Therefore, he should have been way more cautious when sharing his samples of completed this impossible action with Hancock, since Hancock was able to imitate the sample so easily. I like to think that Goodyear was a good man and just liked to see the best in others; however, I think it was his lack