When looking at what constitutes an IP intangible stock asset, the most frequently referenced and easily measured are “patents”. But this is not the full picture. It is critical to understand that there many categories of IP that when shrewdly developed and used together, create a valuable economic asset:

  1. Contracts
  2. Copyright including Moral Rights and Neighbouring Rights
  3. Domain Names
  4. Geographical Indications
  5. Industrials Designs or Design Patents
  6. Integrated Circuit Topography
  7. Patents
  8. Plant Breeders' Rights
  9. Personality Rights
  10. Trademarks
  11. Tradenames
  12. Trade Secrets
  13. Utility Models
  14. Utility Patents

In the knowledge-based economy, you cannot commercialize an idea if you don’t own it. A recent US National Bureau of Economic Research report states: Patents are the most concrete and comparable measure of innovative output over countries and time. (The IT Revolution and the Globalization of R&D. National Bureau of Economic Research, Branstetter et al, 2018, PDF).

Intangible assets — such as IP and data — have a direct impact on wealth and power at both the company level and nationally. This is why companies are amassing ever larger IP portfolios. Countries looking to advance their innovation outputs are focusing on encouraging ownership and then protection of these assets, most notably in the global economic partnerships that are replacing traditional, production economy free-trade agreements.

See Appendix C for a description of IP assets.