The economic effects of intellectual property laws Research Paper

The economic effects of intellectual property laws - Research Paper Example It is worth mentioning that property rights can be owned by a person under the US Intellectual Property Law in three major forms in terms of Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks. Patents are defined as the exclusive rights which are granted for a specific period of time to a particular invention in any kind of technology related fields having the potential of industrial application. In case the technology based inventions have been conducted under the supervision and with the funds of a corporate entity, the patent for such inventions is to be entitled to the corporate entity/entities engaged with the invention process through a contract or agreement where the breach of agreement to sell the patent with the consent of other parties (when there are more than one entity engaged) shall also be termed as infringement of the rights (VoiceFill v. West Interactive Corporation et. al.). Similarly, copyrights are also a kind of exclusive rights which are issued to authorships related to the fi elds of art or literature for a specific period of time. Trademarks deal with the exclusive rights for any kind of specific sign or a particular combination of multiple signs which can distinguish the identity of one good and/or service from the other such as in the case of company logo. Unlike other exclusive IP rights, the trademarks are not effective for only a specified time period, but can be held by the creator(s) (i.e. mostly a corporate entity) until they wish to sell the property right to someone else (Valmont Industries, Inc. v. Lindsay Corporation et. al.). It is in this context that the infringement of either of these rights in order to use the properties without permission is called piracy which is strictly prohibited under the US Intellectual... This paper critically evaluates the American government policy in the sphere of protection of the intellectual property, which directly influence not only the growth of domestic economy, but the economic state of most developing economies, as well. Intellectual property (IP) is often defined as the personalized ideas, inventions, as well as gathered information by an entity that can either be a corporate, a person or even a group of people. These intellectual properties are considered to possess significant commercial value in the local, national as well as global market. It can be stated that the enforcement of intellectual property laws have a considerable impact on the economic structure of a country. For instance, by restricting the unwanted and unpermitted use of the IPs, the law tends to raise the value of the patents, trademarks and encourage innovation. On the contrary, enforcing Intellectual Property Laws can also result in decreased employment, especially in the developing economies where a considerable proportion of the entire labor population is engaged in manufacturing and selling the ideas without permission It is worth mentioning that FDIs and international trade relationships are considered to be quite vital , as major drivers of growth and development along with innovation. It is necessary to identify what implications Intellectual Property Rights have on the international trade relations and the generation of FDIs so as to have a better insight to the economic growth and development