What the U.S. should be doing to Protect Intellectual Property

Introduction

The article “What the U.S. Should Be Doing to Protect Intellectual Property” illustrated how one of the strongest and innovative country in the world (U.S.) struggled to find the correct balance between the exclusive right and public access to its knowledge. A huge amount of the U.S. government revenue was invested to encourage American invention and innovation, but it failed to develop a b alanced international Intellectual Property legal framework. Borders and distance meant less and less in a digitized world where globalization was important and complicated at the same time. I believe, Intellectual Property knowledge and awareness added mo re value to the Technology and Innovation Management course as it helped to understand various Intellectual Properties like patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and identify, they were not the restrictions for innovation rather intellectual prope rty right encouraged nations to have a structured framework globally. T he countries in the world were having free entry into the race to obtain their patents which compelled constant competition among the countries to get the best technology earlier in tim e and encouraged innovation to enter the public domain much rapidly than possible.

Summary

From computer chips, GPS technology to the internet, all these things were the ou tcome of government investment for basic research in universities, labs and multi ple projects around the world. Different countries like China, Japan, Germany, India, and others tried their best not only to preserve their Intellectual Property but also made sure to have a coherent global strategy to encourage large - scale adoption of th eir technology (Breznitz and Murphree, 2016). Strong IP laws were necessary to protect the significant investment , used to develop the technologies, products, pharmaceuticals, or feature films in the world. The innovators got a fair return on their investm ent and the government of different countries ensured home - grown technologies were globally dom inant in their fields (Breznitz and Murphree). There were plenty of IP treaties, agreements, and protocols in place which made intellectual property reforms difficult especially for American companies and stringent U.S. government rules and regulations often complicated the tec hnology adoption process for U.S. innovations internationally. Contrarily, China legal reforms of expanded economic exchanges and Intellectual Property rights played a significant role in all channels of international trade and contributed to the nation as a whole helping China shift its status from IP offender to IP Leader (Breznitz and Murphree).

Analysis

Each country has to give importance to its Intellectual Property protection that is no less favorable than the protection granted to its own people. D eveloped and developing nations often have a different attitude towards their intellectual property right . In today’s world, 90% of all technology royalties and licensing fees are received by five countries USA, China, Germany, Japan, and South Korea (The Federalist Society , 2015 ). U.S. should try to get complete economic benefit from its inventions through strong IP strategy and develop a balanced international Intellectual Property legal framework which should attract more global trade partners and convin ce American companies that their Intellectual Property exports are protected to ensure, these companies are more likely willing to market their products globally. China has jumped from third to second place on international patent application filings surpa ssing Japan and getting close to the U.S. which has been the longtime leader, primarily by focusing on 3 factors i.e., IP education, Maximizing firm - level IP competitiveness and IP pricing stra tegies (Breznitz and Murphree). The international treaties are responsible for globalization , and international political reforms are turning down the iron curtains for trade around the world which was basically impossible a few years ago, is now possible.

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