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What Does Precompetitive Mean?

It is difficult to precisely define "precompetitive" and to provide unerring discriminators for various types of research work. In general, precompetitive research can be thought of as work where companies are not adverse to their competitors having equal access to the results. Following are instances of precompetitive and not precompetitive work (the more elements that apply, the stronger the case).

Precompetitive is:

>Work that overcomes basic obstacles that prevent a technology from being used in commercial applications
Work to understand the characteristics of new technologies or materials
Work that is aimed not at producing products, but rather at providing the tools, information, and data that enables others to develop future products and services
Work that competitors are willing to support on a collaborative basis with results shared beyond the sponsors
Work that offers equal benefit to all competitors
Work that industry is willing to have fully published
Work that has a high cost, or has a high risk of failure, such that individual companies cannot undertake the research
Work on something no one knows how to do
Work to develop industry standards and test procedures where no precedents exist

Precompetitive is not:

Incremental improvements in cost, features or performance of a product
Work that guarantees a differential advantage for one competitor over another
Catch-up work that allows one or more competitors to reach a place where someone else already is
Work that a company insists must be held as proprietary
Work on platform products that provides a competitive advantage
Work on existing, successful products or their immediate successors