Intellectual Property Rights

June 21, 2008
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

Intellectual property rights give creators exclusive rights to their creations, thereby providing an incentive for the author or inventor to develop and share the information rather than keep it secret. The legal protections granted by IP laws are credited with significant contributions toward economic growth. Economists estimate that two-thirds of the value of large businesses in the U.S. can be traced to intangible assets. Likewise, industries which rely on IP protections are estimated to produce 72 percent more value per added employee than non-IP industries. Additionally, a joint research project of the WIPO and the United Nations University measuring the impact of IP systems on six Asian countries and found that there was “a positive connection between the strengthening of the IP system and subsequent economic growth.”