Perceptions of Intellectual Property:A Review

In “The right to good ideas: patents and the poor”, The Economist depicts two driving forces in the contemporary discourse on IP and globalization. The one is interested in advancing the knowledge economy, an approach based on the belief that knowledge is the driving factor behind economic growth. The other resides on a belief that IP is a major means to advance the process of globalization. While the former is strongly motivated by new economic growth theory, as for example advanced by Stanford professor Paul Romer, the latter is based on typical anti-globalization arguments, such as for example the position that the IP system helps multinational companies to build up monopolies to the detriment of the poor, drives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local business in developing countries out of business and increases prices for consumer products, be they pharmaceuticals or software. The purpose of this review is to help understand the current discourse on intellectual property, to grasp underlying themes, assumptions and connotations associated with the term “IP”, so as to identify paths leading to a more comprehensive understanding of IP and the opportunities and pitfalls it may provide

Creating the missing link: applying collective marks to create clusters

Collective marks guarantee ownership over a community’s intangible wealth and in this sense not only reinforce its branding activities, but set up a new structure in which community business can function. Systems of local innovation may thus be developed through the design of an adequate legal infrastructure, paving the way for the solution of policy concerns, such as rural exodus or unemployment. Cluster theory argues that, if small and medium sized enterprises intensify their degree of interaction to build up networks, this reduces costs, dependence on large firms, provides access to new markets and helps improve the position of the cluster in the market. All these functions can be reinforced through collective marks, which offer a legal context for the cluster’s governance structure, its standards and quality controls and system of collaboration. These features are particularly of relevance in a sector like tourism, where cooperation is a prerequisite for success. Empirical evidence suggests a certain sense of confusion on the role of trade mark protection in clusters: Individual marks are used as if they were collective marks, collective marks are used without further consideration of the economic aspects or intellectual property protection is altogether ignored. In practice the wide range of opportunities provided by collective trademarks remains unexploited. Interdisciplinary approaches to IP may help to bridge a gap, observed both within academia and in practice, and thus join the IP law perspective to the evolving management literature on cluster theory.cluster creation, community reinforcement, network theory, collective trademarks,

Financing University Research

While the detailed mechanisms of the interplay of knowledge creation and economic growth have been discussed in great detail by endogenous growth theory, this paper is interested in assessing the role that universities play in the knowledge based economy. It does so at the example of best practice scenarios, as currently being undertaken by the University of Oxford, U.C. Berkeley, the M.I.T. and Chalmers School of Technology. It argues that key to successful research commercialization is the leverage of clusters and networks that assure knowledge flows between universities and business. We call this the ‘Third Way’ of university research commercialization, which focuses on systemic change, rather than on single stakeholder intervention. It reflects a novel generation of knowledge policies that focuses on training, awareness raising and the leverage of cluster effects, rather than the development of physical infrastructure (i.e. science parks). This is a unique approach that outperforms existing best practice in many ways; i.e. it focuses on the leverage of networks among the various academic institutions, rather than repeating the traditional ‘one university – one technology transfer office’ approach. The ‘Third Way’ also outperforms existing best practices by adopting latest trends in intellectual property management , such as online trading, perceiving intellectual property as a financial asset and leveraging open innovation for improving patent quality. Organizational values, structures & procedures of various actors (business, academia, government) are recognized and different institutional cultures are sought to be overcome through boundary spanning. The competing demands and interests of business and academia are reflected through the introduction of ‘social responsible university research commercialization’, as currently undertaken by U.C. Berkeley.Technology Transfer, Research Funding, Intellectual Property, Chalmers School of Technology, U.C. Berkeley, Oxford University

Trademark owners perspective on the Madrid system: practical experiences and theoretical underpinnings

Based on the assumption that possible future reforms of the Madrid System for the filing and renewal of trademark registration at the international level must be user driven, the paper explored in a series of 23 in-depth interviews, the views of companies varying in size, geographical distribution, market context and number of trademarks filed for a company through the Madrid System. The empirical analysis underlined the important role of the Madrid System in expanding their market coverage, but also showed that a major challenge will be to meet the diverse needs of business operating in varied contexts of developing and developed countries. While firms in developed countries need a system that fits high-speed post-fordist business operations, further awareness raising and capacity building is necessary to fully integrate the private sector in developing countries and to expand participation beyond current usage levels.economic costs of trademark protection, user driven innovation, international trademark filing, international trade,

How developing countries can benefit from intellectual property: the role of collective marks in tourism

While tourism has been praised by a variety of international organizations as a means to promote the local economy in developing countries, tourism led growth has never been seen to be supported by a developing countries’ intellectual property regimes. Intellectual property rights, particularly if owned collectively, accelerate cluster creation, an organizational form particularly beneficial for tourism. The positive externalities associated with clusters can be reinforced through the assignment of collective marks. A region’s intangible assets, its social cohesion, can be fostered through the introduction of collective marks, since it is an intellectual property rights that can be owned collectively by a given community. This paper is one of the first of its kind to flesh out a more differentiated economic value proposition of collective marks, while at the same time illustrating the economic opportunities that the intellectual property system provides to developing countries’ economies.Economies of agglomeration, externalities of cluster creation, economic value proposition of collective marks

Decay amplitudes in two-dimensional QCD

Decay amplitudes for mesons in two-dimensional QCD are discussed. We show that in spite of an infinite number of conserved charges, particle production is not entirely suppressed. This phenomenon is explained in terms of quantum corrections to the combined algebra of higher-conserved and spectrum-generating currents. We predict the qualitative form of particle production probabilities and verify that they are in agreement with numerical data. We also discuss four-dimensional self-dual Yang-Mills theory in the light of our results.Comment: We discuss in more detail the background material and elaborate on the consequences of the new results. New equations and text are added and the figures are efficiently regenerated by a fortran program, latex file, 13 pages, 4 figures in encapsulated postscript files, uses epsf. minor changes, version to appear in Physical Review