TPP watch: why doesn’t NZ quantify its intellectual capital?

Posted by Clare Curran on November 17th, 2013

In 2012 the US produced this report :

Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy

INDUSTRIES IN FOCUS

Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are the principal means for establishing ownership rights to inventions and ideas, and provide a legal foundation by which intangible ideas and creations generate tangible benefits to businesses and employees.

Intellectual property (IP) protection affects commerce throughout the economy by: providing incentives to invent and create; protecting innovators from unauthorized copying; facilitating vertical specialization in technology markets; creating a platform for financial investments in innovation; supporting startup liquidity and growth through mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs; making licensing-based technology business models possible; and, enabling a more efficient market for technology transfer and trading in technology and ideas.

On April 11, 2012, the U.S. Commerce Department released a comprehensive report, entitled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus,” which found that intellectual property (IP)-intensive industries support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion dollars to, or 34.8 percent of, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

Pretty compelling stuff.

To my knowledge there is nothing comparable in New Zealand.

In 2012 a report Price Waterhouse Coopers produced a report for the NZ screen industry which found that the film and television industry’s total contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) was $2.78 billion, representing 1.4% of New Zealand’s total GDP.

This report was important (though it should be noted our film industry is under threat and under resourced). But it’s not the full picture.

Read the rest of this post here:

http://blog.labour.org.nz/2013/11/17/tpp-watch-why-doesnt-nz-quantify-its-intellectual-capital/

ENDS

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