5 areas of IP protection

Specifically, the report examines the effects of IP protection in five main areas:

• IP protection benefits the economy in terms of GDP, employment, tax revenues and strategic importance. Intellectual property rights (IPR) promote foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology transfers in developed and developing countries.
• IP protection promotes innovation, increases funding for R&D and helps firms realize more value from innovations.
• IP helps firms monetize their innovations, secure investments, grow market value, and develop new markets. Companies that use IPR generally succeed better and have a higher market value than those that do not.
• IP protection helps small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs that rely on IP of all sorts reported higher growth, income and employment than those that do not -- in some cases as much as 20% more.
• IP protection benefits consumers and society -- providing consumers with innovative products and services in virtually every area of life, drives solutions to many of society's most important needs -- from clean energy, reduced carbon emissions and health care, and helps protect consumers from inferior and dangerous counterfeits.