Taking Commercialisation Seriously

Abstract

Other than a handful of scholars, the IP law community in the last 50 years has at worst ignored, and at best wrongly dismissed, concerns about the commercialisation of inventions and creative works. Specifically, the 'reward' theory of intellectual property - and not the ‘natural rights’ sort - became dominant. Under this view, only the knowledge (i.e., 'information') created during invention and creation is in need of direct legal protection; commercialisation will proceed efficiently without further IP protection. This opinion piece rejects such an approach and makes a renewed call for the consideration of commercialisation interests in IP scholarship.

Keywords: Patent, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Commercialization, IP Theory

JEL Classification: O34