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IIPA discussed IPR breaches in 63 countries in a report
in February The U.S. economy lost $9.2 billion through copyright
breaches in 2002. According to the report, absolute piracy losses
are greatest in China, reaching $1.85 billion in 2002. IIPA estimated
motion picture piracy in China at 91 percent, records and music
piracy at 90 percent, business software piracy at 93 percent, and
entertainment software piracy at 96 percent. As intellectual property
becomes a major source of wealth in the knowledge economy, its protection,
management and transfer is an increasingly important and strategic
issue.
The Digital Media
Intellectual property in the digital form is easy to copy because
of low or no upfront cost of producing each additional copy. Quality
remains the same for infinite reproductions. Therefore, copyright
piracy is possible on a much larger scale because of the digital
media. Software & the Internet are changing the rules of IPR.
Day to day actions on the Internet requires a thorough understanding
of todays complex digital intellectual property rights. Simply linking
to copyright content or booking a domain name can have legal implications.
A page that you have linked to may suddenly start providing illegal
or copyright pirated content. A copyright registration of your website
(different forms for text, graphics, audio, etc) could be no more
valid after the website has been updated. Software piracy issues
are as complex. Can an employee telecommuting for part of the week
install a copy of the licensed software on his/her home PC? Software
on a CD is easy to copy. Software on the Internet can be copied
by millions in a single click.
Using technology to stop digital copyright piracy has not met with
much success till date. Digital Audio Extraction (DAE or Ripping)
of protected DVDs (Sony) by just a few strokes of a marker pen or
downloading copyrighted chapters of an online Stephen King's novel
by decrypting the algorithm that prevented copying are famous examples.
If enforcing copyrights is difficult, patenting technology has
its share of problems too. The online business world is in many
ways closer to an ideal business environment. Customers are much
more 'active' on the net & news spreads fast. When online firms
patent technology & their use, well informed netizens voice
their opinion in various forums. Amazon.com has been 'flamed' for
patents that is has acquired including those related to one-click
shopping & referral programs. Jeff Bezos wrote to patent boycotters
& talked to at least one of them in a bid to find a middle path.
Whether patents encourage innovation is not yet known in an industry
in which unregulated Internet & Open Source software communities
are issues close to the hearts of many. A software or a patent involving
the Internet has a large component of ideas. Patenting these ideas
could curb further innovation. The duration of copyrights (could
be 150 years) & patents (20 yrs) is too long for the software
& Internet age (Jeff himself had suggested patents for 3-5 yrs.).
Limited resources which could have been used for further research
& innovation are being spent towards maintaining patents &
filing new ones.
The Knowledge Economy
In the knowledge economy, protecting the company's own (created)
knowledge has become all the more important. R&D teams are provided
incentives on the number of patents that they file. Patents can
be challenged at anytime during the term of protection & on
an average, $1000 is spent annually on maintaining each patent.
Companies with a large patent portfolio have started taking a critical
look at their intellectual assets. Patents that are not likely to
contribute financially to the business & do not match the overall
vision of the organization are sold off or 'donated'.
The importance of intellectual property protection (patents, copyright
and trademarks) is in providing the necessary incentives to researching
and commercializing products. The supporting laws and policies act
as enablers to a world knowledge based economy. The value of intellectual
capital has far exceeded the tangible assets & forms the bulk
of the value of the economy today.
Biotechnology blurred the distinction between invention & discovery
by making life forms patentable (Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty of GE
granted US patent on a genetically engineered Pseudomonas bacteria,
1971). Whether a consensus is reached to allow patents on all life
forms - genes, crops, animals and human cell lines as in US &
Japan or disallow patents on higher life forms remains to be seen.
Patent applications based on the human genome project are testing
the present patent system to its limit. It will take another century
to understand the implications of human gene mapping, but patents
have already been granted based on the limited understanding that
we possess as of now.
Traditional Knowledge & biopiracy
The importance of traditional or community knowledge is obvious
from the number of patent application filed based on this knowledge.
Our present IPR system assumes all creativity/knowledge emanating
from the minds of single individuals, corporates & organizations.
Traditional knowledge & cultural heritage of tribals, villages,
groups and nations have more or less been ignored.
Owing to the fact that traditional knowledge forms an indispensable
part of many patents, which would not have been possible or delayed
considerably otherwise, such patent holders should share part of
the profits accruing from the commercialization of their products
with the providers of the knowledge. This is not as easily possible
though. In most cases, it is difficult to identify the exact group(s)
from whom the knowledge has emanated from. Traditional knowledge
is orally passed on from generation to generation with little written
records in many cultures. Another problem is that currently a very
small percent of patents contribute to the bottom-line of organizations
that own them. Profit sharing is possible only when the patent helps
in generating profits.
In the United States, prior existing knowledge to deny a patent
is accepted in terms of publication in any journal, but not of knowledge
known and available in oral or folk traditions. TRIPs recommends
that "knowledge like use of medicinal plants diffused within
a local or indigenous community should also be deemed prior art
and patent denied." If agreed to by member countries, this
will save communities the trouble of searching for written material
that could help them lay claim on traditional knowledge.
The knowledge society has a lot at stake. Traditional industrial
economy laws will be challenged with greater frequency as the stakes
involved in knowledge assets become larger. The way IPR laws shape
up in the future will determine the fate of not just a few knowledge
industries, but of communities & nations.
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