Question

3- Economics of Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights: - Patents, copyrights, and trademarks - R&D races, digital innovation- regulation of digital platforms.

Please, summarize on 1 page.

Answer 1

The literature on intellectual property has grown rapidly in the field of economics over the last few years , especially in some developed countries. As access to IP data has improved, methodological tools have become increasingly sophisticated to understand its role in the economy and our understanding of economic trade offsets has been enhanced Intellectual property rights ( IPRs) in recent decades have attracted increasing attention both in academic circles and in public policy debates. This has gone hand in hand with their increasing use, in particular (but not only) patents, reforms in national and international legal frameworks that have resulted in the strengthening of IPRs and the rapid growth of sectors in which knowledge, innovation and appropriateness play a key role (e.g. biotechnology, ICT and cultural industries).

One of the patent rationales is that they stimulate economic and technological development and promote competition by creating a financial motivation for invention in return for public disclosure of the invention. While the value of the patent system in the sense of competitive innovation activities has been widely recognized, some critics have argued that the existing patent system stymies R&D and technological advances.

The distribution of scientific knowledge is one of the main features of the patent system. Patent information is a valuable and comprehensive source of technical, commercial, and legal information that can be used directly for scientific and experimental purposes and as a basis for encouraging the adaptation and improvement of the technology described in patent documents immediately after their publication. Recognizing the value of disseminating technical knowledge, an growing number of IP offices and organisations are using the Internet to provide access to the repositories for their patent documents.

While it may appear at first glance that previous technologies such as telephone or television have little in common with the internet and digital platforms, we must remember that in their day these technologies were equally disruptive. Like digital platforms, their ability to communicate and broadcast content simultaneously to millions around the world challenged every aspect of trade and civil society – creating new economic and social opportunities, promising content democratisation, and opening the door to unprecedented harassment and demagoguery.

Embrace comprehensive sector-specific regulation by empowering a single regulator to supervise digital platforms, rather than using multiple agencies to implement a mix of competition policy, content moderation policy, consumer protection and public safety. Only by acknowledging the unique nature of digital platforms can governments overall ensure comprehensive and appropriate policies. Policymakers should realize that while we should not allow the dynamic nature of technology and the complicated social and economic transactions to freeze us into immobility, we should not be in a rush to pass specific laws of general applicability that will have unpredictable consequences. Rather, governments should provide the new sector regulator with a broad array of tools to address the many issues raised by such an important and diverse sector.