Comprehensive Intellectual Capital Management: Step-By-Step

Chapter 8. The Intellectual Property Management Stage

AN IP ECONOMY

I am tempted to call it the IP^[271] Economy. At first, this may seem frivolous, given that IP is a knowledge-based asset and hence the term knowledge economy should suffice. But that is inaccurate for two reasons. First, IP, though knowledge based, draws its power not from the knowledge it protects (despite its critical importance) but from its capacity as a competitive and marketing tool. Repeatedly, whether it is a patent, a trademark, or a copyright, IP is enabling organizations to enter and create new markets, and to block competition from gaining a strong hold in certain markets. Indeed, IP is at the core of competitive performance in any industry.^[272] Second, the value of IP can be measured with greater certainty than any other intellectual capital (IC), given that IP is the most tangible of the intangibles. As a business asset, the value of IP to a business (a patent, a brand, or a copyrighted work) can reach hundreds of millions.^[273]

On the macroeconomic level, the effectiveness of a country's IP system is a determining factor in its economic performance.^[274] In the United States, patenting activity rose dramatically a few years after the establishment of the Federal Circuit in 1986 as the court of final review for cases involving patents and copyrights, which made a murky area of law more predictable. The same is true for copyrights, where copyright industries have been growing at rates exceeding the national ...