Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
INNOVATION, PATENTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
RIFAT A. ATUN
Centre for Health Management, Tanaka Business School
Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
r.atun@imperial.ac.uk
IAN HARVEY
Intellectual Property Institute, London, UK
JOFF WILD
Intellectual Asset Management Magazine
Empirical evidence demonstrates the value of intellectual property (IP) in creating economic
growth, enhancing productivity and profitability, and increasing enterprise value. Research
and Development (R&D) intensive industries, such as the life sciences, where patents are
critical to competition, need an enabling environment to institutionalise innovation and IP
generation and reward investments in IP.
The US has approached IP strategically and created an IP infrastructure. Japan aims
to develop into an “IP nation”. China has an increasingly well-developed IP system. In
contrast, the European Union (EU), which aims to become the world's leading knowledge-
based economy, has a fragmented and expensive system of national patents. It lacks an
environment which values investment in IP generation and management.
Until recently, the EU enjoyed global competitive advantage in the life sciences, but
this advantage has been lost. To regain this competitive advantage the EU must invest
substantially in R&D, IP generation and commercialisation of these outputs.
Keywords
: Innovation; life sciences; patent systems; China; EU; USA; Japan.
Introduction
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) empha-
sises that long run economic growth depends on the creation and fostering of
an environment that encourages innovation and application of new technolo-
gies. Innovative activity underpins economic productivity and growth. Countries
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