Intellectual Property

• Author: Bert Spector
• Profession: Professor of Strategy at Northeastern University
• Pages: 103-117

Intellectual Property 103

CHAPTER 8

INTELLECTUAL

PROPERTY

Knowledge and ideas have increasingly replaced machines and building s as the

currency of our economy. In the United St ates alone, economists estim ate that

corporations spend over $1 trillion a year developing intellectual assets, more

than is spent on the physical assets that until recently fueled commerce. As a

percentage of gross national product (GNP), investment in intellectual capital

has tripled, while investment in physical capital has been flat. The Internet

certainly helps explain that explosion, but other factors—the increasing com-

plexity of technology, the globalization of commerce, and the speed of innova-

tion and change among them—contribute. Virtually any business, regardless

of size, scope, or industry, traffics signif icantly in knowledge and ideas.

Given these developments—the growing importa nce of knowledge and

the increasing investment in developing it—there is little surprise that the

management of intellectual assets has become a major task for corporate

executives. And as much as in any other area of legal practice, the oversight,

protection , and exploitation of intel lectual proper ty brings in-hous e and out-

side counsel together with strategic decision makers. Executives approach

intellectual property (IP) as a tool for converting knowledge into value.

They turn to counsel for help in defining and protecting this v ital asset.