Over the weekend, we invited Dave Culp and Don Montague to Squid Labs to brainstorm on all things kite, but especially kite-powered boats. Dave and Don are among the best in their game, and, naturally, the brainstorming session couldn’t be complete without a stiff breeze and few field and water tests.

Once under sail, the conversation turned to business. Don has his kites made in China, and he had nothing but good things to say about quality and price. When asked about protecting IP, he wasn’t worried about his designs “walking out the back door of the factory.” His relationship with the manufacturers had always been positive, and even with a secure factory, reverse engineering something like a kite isn’t that difficult. Instead, he assumes knockoffs will be hot on his tail and strives to be the market leader by offering better service and customer support.

That seems like a great strategy for an equipment-based company, but how does it relate to an IP-generation business? There’s certainly a wider range of customers who want to do a wider array of things than fly kites. So, in addition to awesome ideas and patents, better service might be a deeper understanding of the customers’ customers. Or, it could mean developing a framework for innovation and helping the customer use that framework to come up with their own great ideas for their own customers. Clearly, it’s not an easy problem but one that we’ll be brainstorming solutions to, filling them up with air, and seeing how well they fly.