Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In summary, cross-country, country-level and company-level studies show that
innovation, as measured by R&D or patenting, has a positive correlation with eco-
nomic productivity and enhances market share and profitability at company level.
Benefits are best realised when regimes governing intellectual property rights pro-
vide incentives for innovation and do not hinder diffusion of knowledge. Empirical
evidence also shows that innovation diffuses rapidly to competitor firms and is
imitated. Hence, IP protection is important to sustain competitive advantage and
allow the creators to capture the benefits of their investment in innovation. Effective
management of innovation and IP should be a fundamental strategic objective for
countries and companies, particularly in knowledge-based and innovation-intensive
economies.
The next section of this paper explores innovation and IP management strategies
pursued by countries and companies to enhance competitiveness.
Country Case Studies
Because IP is a powerful lever for economic growth, the role played by governments
in shaping IP policy is important. In this section, we analyse differing approaches
taken by the US, Japan, China and Europe to promote and manage IP effectively.
The United States
Over the last 25 years, policy makers have played an important role in creating an
IP infrastructure in the US. This has encouraged the growth of high-tech industries
and created jobs. The “Bayh-Dole Act”, which provided a new and uniform way
for handling and transfer of federally-funded sponsored research at academic insti-
tutions in the US, transformed the parameters within which academia and industry
co-operated (USGPO, 1980). By allowing universities to own the IP they created,
the act afforded greater freedom for universities to enter into agreements with the
private sector, the venture capital industry, and foreign firms and offered substantial
rewards to those undertaking successful research. Since the act came into force in
1984, US universities have completed approximately 42,000 licensing deals and
have created 4,500 companies. Around 95% of the revenues from these activities
come from licencing and 5% from spinouts (Association of University Technology
Managers Inc., 1999). Companies with their roots in the US university system now
employ hundreds of thousands of people and contribute an estimated $40 billion
a year to the country's economy. In particular, the changes that followed Bayh-
Dole led to the growth of dynamic companies in the life sciences, IT and defence
sectors — where the US now enjoys global dominance.
Since 1980, organisations such as the American Intellectual Property Asso-
ciation, the Intellectual Property Owners, the International Intellectual Property
Search WWH ::




Custom Search