Measuring the Economic Impact of Intellectual Property Systems

• Author: Allan Roach
• Position: WIPO Japan Office

The role of the intellectual property (IP) system as a stimulus for promoting technological innovation, improving trade and enhancing competitiveness is much discussed. Numbers, however, sometimes speak louder than words. And as Member States have highlighted in the WIPO Development Agenda discussions, there is a pressing need among policy-makers for hard, empirical data which demonstrates the precise impact of IP on economic development.

Developing reliable methodologies to capture and measure this impact accurately, however, presents a major on-going challenge. WIPO's Guide on Surveying the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries, published in 2003, makes an important contribution in this respect, focusing specifically on the copyright sector. Now, WIPO's newly opened Japan Office has launched a major study of the economic impact of IP systems in six Asian countries- China, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam - with the aim of assessing and developing a sound methodology for carrying out such economic research. If the project is successful, the methodology could be applied in other regions of the world, offering a useful tool for Members States wishing to conduct similar projects.

The methodology used in the study, which encompasses a cross-section of industrial sectors, has three main components and incorporates company data dating back over the last 20 to 30 years:

Part 1 consists of a survey of national policy reforms geared towards IP-based economic development;

Part 2 contains case studies on individual companies from different industrial and commercial sectors;

Part 3 consists of economic analysis using economic models.

The project research team is composed of national experts with backgrounds in IP, law and economics, selected from countries with differing social and economic profiles.

Preliminary findings

In May, WIPO and the United Nations University, in cooperation with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), held an open symposium in Tokyo, at which the experts from the six participating countries presented...