IWS Documented News INTERNATIONAL

IWS Documented News Service

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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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National Science Foundation (NSF)

InfoBrief

Business Use of Intellectual Property Protection Documented in NSF Survey [17 February 2012]

NSF 12-307 | February 2012 | 

by John E. Jankowski

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf12307/

or

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf12307/nsf12307.pdf

[full-text, 8 pages]

[excerpt]

In today's global economy, much of a business's competitive advantage lies in the ability to protect and exploit exclusive rights over investments in intellectual property (IP)—that is, creative outcomes lacking physical substance but providing long-term benefits to the company. Hence, IP protection is a persistent and recurrent concern of businesses.[2] Under IP law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as discoveries and inventions; musical, literary, and artistic works; and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. New survey findings from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Census Bureau (Census) indicate that trademarks and trade secrets are identified by the largest number of businesses as important forms of IP protection, followed by copyrights, and then patents. However, the level of reliance on each of these forms of IP protection varies considerably across industry sectors.

In 2009 NSF and Census launched a revamped and expanded Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS).[3] Businesses located in the United States were asked to report on the importance of various types of IP protection to their company during 2008. Specifically, they reported whether utility patents, design patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and mask works (copyright protection for semiconductor products) were "very important," "somewhat important," or "not important." The data were weighted by industry category and size, and they were collected for businesses with and without R&D activity.[4] This InfoBrief presents summary findings from the 2008 BRDIS pilot survey on the importance of IP protection among U.S.-located businesses.

Includes CHARTS & TABLES....

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