Gore-Tex Case Study

Questions 1. Explain what happened to the Gore-Tex brand after the patent expired. What activity can firms use to try to maintain any advantage developed during the patent protection phase? -When the patent to a company expires, the company would no longer hold the exclusivity of the item’s format. The creators of it gives up the right to ownership of it and other companies are allow to replicate and compete with them on the same product lines. Firms can stay ahead of the game by trying to improve on the foundation of the designs and further advanced their products for future uses. . List some of the wide range of products where the Gore-Tex fabric has been applied. -Gore offers raincoats, shoes, backpacks, pants, jackets, hats and many other types of apparel. 3. It seems that Gore Associates is heavily oriented towards technology; what are some of the dangers of being too heavily focused on technology? -Focusing too much on technology can limit a company’s potential to strive towards other goals. It can set them back by having them spend too much money on R&D for lost purposes instead of focusing on becoming innovated and creative with new things.

A well-rounded company should find common ground on innovations and refine the scope how technology can help better them. 4. Cooperatives and share-ownership schemes provide many attractions and benefits, but there are also limitations; discuss these. -The issue with this is that there can be too many people trying to fight to take charge and lead with what they feel is the best route to take with a company. This will limit the scope of the business since nothing is really being done but clashing of superiors. Companies can be torn in various ways because of this cooperative and share-ownership schemes. . What has been the Gore strategy to achieving success in its markets? How is this strategy now being challenged? -I think a great strategy for their success is that they had been able to keep up with the times that they were trying to achieve business in. Such as the demand to be in the outdoors of the mid 90’s, their products like backpacks and hunting gear were greatly accommodating to their consumers. The issue is now their competitors have also been successful at getting through to the customers and they accumulated too much competition.