Ochrona praw własności intelektuanej w warunkach nowej gospodarki

Abstract

The article discuses the role of protecting copyrights in the new economy. The most common approach to this problem which can be seen in the public debate stresses the role of technological competition between market players and says that reforms of intellectual property protection system should facilitate the process of obtaining patent protection for bigger amount of innovations of all kinds for longer time. This should encourage all companies to invest in R&D which will improve innovation capability of the whole economy. The article shows that realization of this common belief can lead to some counterproductive results, which can be especially important in case of new economy sectors. On the other hand, the article argues that the discussion on intellectual property protection should not only concentrate on the technological competition process, but it should also take into consideration an influence of the reform on the technological cooperation process. This is especially important in case of creating an institutional background for cooperation between the so called general purpose technology sectors and application technology sectors, which can be the core of the innovation process in the new economy.