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.