IP, the Economy – and What’s at Risk

Title: IP, the Economy – and What’s at Risk

Source: http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/summitry/1008-ip-the-economy--and-whats-at-risk

"In the past decade, the emergence of two momentous yet opposing trends are challenging the world’s knowledge-based economy, and portray an alarming future economic and employment scenario that will be radically different than it is today.

First, intellectual capital is increasingly becoming our most important resource, rapidly replacing land, energy, and raw materials in the production equation. As The Economist put it in October 2005, as much as 75 percent of the value of publicly traded companies comes from intangible assets, up from around 40 percent in the early 1980s. And a new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that 75 IP-intensive industries together directly and indirectly employed 40 million workers with average weekly wages that are 42 percent higher than those of non-IP-intensive industries. According to the report, IP-intensive industries represent about 35 percent of U.S. GDP. Clearly, entire industries and millions of employees are depending more and more on the creation and protection of intellectual property.

Second, as companies seek to deliver products and services to the marketplace, they are investing more and more in “intellectual capital”. The problem is that intellectual property is vulnerable to theft – namely through counterfeiting and piracy....."

See it on Scoop.it, via Knowledge Economy

http://www.scoop.it/t/knowledge-economy/p/1965585708/ip-the-economy-and-what-s-at-risk/original IP, the Economy – and What’s at Risk