Once a technical issue left to lawyers and a few policy experts, intellectual property (IP) rights have now become an issue with far broader reach and increasing political consequence. To help decisionmakers from all areas of society navigate and understand this issue better, the International Chamber of Commerce has published a new roadmap.

The 2006 IP landscape is very colourful. New technology and innovation give rise to opportunities but also to challenges. Global concerns like development and AIDS require new thinking to ensure IP rights are protected to foster economic growth in emerging economies yet flexible so life-saving products reach those in urgent need.

"Many countries at all stages of development are increasingly using intellectual property rights protection to develop local innovation-based industries," said Urho Ilmonen, Chair of the ICC Commission on Intellectual Property which produced the document. He added that the World Intellectual Property Organization had just had a record year for patent filings with applications from Japan, the Republic of Korea and China rising by 162%, 200% and 212% respectively.

Other issues gaining greater attention are counterfeiting and piracy. Given the significant negative economic and social impact of these, they have their own section in this year's roadmap. Of greatest concern is the shortfall in IP rights enforcement. Identifying the need for an international, multisectoral approach to combat this, ICC initiated Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP). More information on their work can be found at: www.iccwbo.org/BASCAP .

With the feedback from users of last year's edition in mind, ICC has tried to explain more of the technical terms and it has added hyperlinks to the electronic and web versions of the 2006 roadmap. A copy of the full text can be found at: www.iccwbo.org/iproadmap .