The appropriability regime as a tool to measure knowledge protection.

The appropriability regime consists of a combination of means to protect knowledge and the return of investments made on innovation. The protective strategy chosen by the company is of great importance because scarce resources are spent, and R&D derived knowledge should not flow away towards competitors. The regime consists of a combination of appropriability mechanisms; the nature of knowledge, institutional protection, HRM, practical/technical means, and lead-time. The chosen strategy is dependent on availability, strength, efficacy and goal. In this paper we use this appropriability regime to scrutinize the appropriability strategy of GPS producer Garmin, and try to explain its relation with the market competitors. We use secondary data as source to examine the different mechanisms. With this we want to study whether the appropriability regime is a usable scheme to research companies and markets, to explain past happenings, and to foresee and predict future cases.