IP Royalty Payments Growing faster than the Economy

San Diego, Calif. February 3, 2012 – “During the past twenty years, the globalization process and the transition to the information economy manifest the growing role that licensing intellectual property plays in the world’s economies” stated  IPmetrics’ Chief Economist, Fernando Torres, having analyzed the data from the World Intellectual Property Organization’s most recent Annual Report.

Cross-border licensing, the formal trading of the rights to use intellectual property – such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights – between companies operating in different countries has been increasing from close to 30 billion USD in the early nineties, to nearly 200 billion USD in the most recent year for which global data is available (2009).  While still less than 1% of global economic activity (GDP) and not including domestic licensing, this means that the value of licensed IP across borders has grown six-times faster than the global economy.

“The substantial value of these rights, not only internally but as a global intangible industry, is definitely the underlying motivation for the interest and controversy surrounding the recent lobbying, legislative, and backlash regarding the enforcement of IP rights in treaties such as ACTA, and proposed bills such as SOPA and PIPA in the U.S.” concluded Mr. Torres.

 

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