This concise guide is aimed at providing awareness on the subject of intellectual property asset development and management as a tool for economic development. The guide has been developed within the context of a project to identify and gather data concerning the key policies, strategies and practices that are being undertaken by WIPO Member States to use intellectual property assets.

How a flexible and creative approach to intellectual property can help an organization accomplish goals ranging from building market share to expanding an industry. Most managers leave intellectual property issues to the legal department, unaware that an organization's intellectual property can help accomplish a range of management goals, from accessing new markets to improving existing products to generating new revenue streams. In this book, intellectual property expert and Harvard Law School professor John Palfrey offers a short briefing on intellectual property strategy for corporate managers and nonprofit administrators. Palfrey argues for strategies that go beyond the traditional highly restrictive “sword and shield” approach, suggesting that flexibility and creativity are essential to a profitable long-term intellectual property strategy—especially in an era of changing attitudes about media. Intellectual property, writes Palfrey, should be considered a key strategic asset class. Almost every organization has an intellectual property portfolio of some value and therefore the need for an intellectual property strategy. A brand, for example, is an important form of intellectual property, as is any information managed and produced by an organization. Palfrey identifies the essential areas of intellectual property—patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret—and describes strategic approaches to each in a variety of organizational contexts, based on four basic steps. The most innovative organizations employ multiple intellectual property approaches, depending on the situation, asking hard, context-specific questions. By doing so, they achieve both short- and long-term benefits while positioning themselves for success in the global information economy.

This book argues that intellectual property (IP) management development and innovation are fundamental to economic development , especially in newly emerging economies which often hold vast reserves of natural resources and human knowledge that remain unprotected. It sheds light on countries that are gradually realising this situation, with examples from many parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, Africa and especially Asia including India, where a great deal is being made of innovation and intellectual property to stimulate economic growth. These case studies are seen within the theoretical context of the future of cross-border IP which is slowly becoming a reality. Specific examples go beyond the patent prosecution highway, to which China has also recently signed up, and India’s development of generic drugs at lower costs. Experts in the field including practising IP lawyers explain and criticise current and new models being tested in emerging economies concerning IPR. Original case studies of hitherto little understood breaches of African trademarks by the US and Japan, and patenting mistakes in relation to little known Indian forest plants all damage emerging economies and their native people's lives. While proper implementation of IP laws by emerging economies themselves can lead to positive outcomes for all involved, the key is an independent judiciary coupled by thoughtful and thoroughly understood implementation of IP laws within the context of cross border IP. The book shows through models how different emerging economies are at various levels of developing their IPR and what paths they are taking to do this. Finally, it provides a comprehensive assessment of the ways in which innovation, protection and enforcement of IP laws can help newly emerging economies achieve economic growth without destroying natural and human resources, while moving ahead from the current global financial crisis.