The dynamism of the global environment and technological development have changed the way of doing business and with it, the protection of intellectual property has become a vital element today. How can we forget that in the past a person had to go to a physical store to buy the musical material of their choice; in an environment in which artists were recognized by the number of records they sold. Today, streaming platforms for music reproduction continue to grow by leaps and bounds, developing an environment in which without leaving home and through a subscription it is possible to have access to an immeasurable universe of material; and in which the success of an artist is now measured by the number of downloads.
However, just as it is increasingly easy to have access to music, films, literary works, etc., it is also essential that all this material is protected and regulated by intellectual property. But what is meant by intellectual property? According to what is indicated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), it is all that creation of the human mind, whether they are inventions, literary, artistic works, as well as symbols, names, images or designs used for trade (2017).
WIPO is part of the United Nations system and is the body in charge of regulating intellectual property at the global level. It was created in 1970 with the aim of protecting the rights of creators and holders of intellectual property titles worldwide and as a consequence, to recognize and reward the ingenuity of inventors, authors and artists.
WIPO is a forum in which participating States dictate and harmonize practices or standards to protect intellectual property rights. Additionally, it offers its services for the registration of trademarks, industrial designs, designation of origin, patent applications and copyright. It should be noted that this body generates more than 90% of its budget through its global registry services, sale of its publications, and arbitration and mediation services. The rest of the funds come from what the Member States contribute for this purpose.
By balancing the interest between creators and innovators and the general public, the intellectual property system favors the proliferation of an environment conducive to creativity and innovation oriented to the fields of science and technology, literature and the arts. As soon as a regulatory framework begins to be created, supported by a formal institution and well positioned internationally, the commercialization of goods and services in the global market also increases.
And what benefits does intellectual property bring? First, it encourages creation and innovation to develop new things by encouraging people to continue developing better and more effective products for consumers. It also works as a catalyst for economic, social and cultural development in countries. Finally, it regulates the global market, offering security to consumers when purchasing goods and services, protecting brands and combating aspects such as counterfeiting and piracy.
It is important to note that intellectual property, in addition to promoting creativity and innovation, also requires the generation of rights to make use of a work, a brand, an invention or a product. Intellectual property rights allow the creator or owner to take advantage of the benefits that arise from the use of their invention.
Intellectual property is divided into two categories:
Industrial property: unlike copyrights, which are born by mere creation, this has an exclusively commercial nature and includes aspects such as: patents for invention, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications.
- Patents give the holder the power to decide whether the invention can be used by third parties. The trademark is a sign that allows differentiating the products or services of a company. Industrial design, drawing or model, is the aesthetic aspect of an article Geographical indications are a sign used for products or services that have a specific geographical origin and whose characteristics are due to the place of origin.
Copyrights: refer to the protection of creations in which the personality of the creator or author is reflected and include: literary works (novels, poems, plays), films, music, artistic works (drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures) and architectural designs.
To get a quantitative idea of the impact of patents and trademarks in the world, the report published by WIPO called “Data and Figures on IP” (2017) was consulted, which indicates that patent and trademark applications have increased 8.3 % and 13.5% respectively, during 2016.
About 3.1 million patent applications were computed in the WIPO databases. The highest percentage of these was captured by China with 42.8%; of the total applications, only this economy received a total of 1.3 million applications. After this percentage, the highest correspond to the offices of the US (19.4%), Japan (10.2%), Korea (6.7%) and the European Patent Office (5.1%). In economies such as Brazil and Mexico, the number of applications received in 2016 was only 28,010 and 14,413 respectively, a quantity vastly lower than the number of applications received by China.
The analysis of the patents of each economy makes it possible to identify those areas in which each country has a greater technical knowledge or degree of specialization. For example, China, Japan and Korea submitted the highest number of applications related to electronic devices, while the country that submitted the most applications in the field of transport was Germany, and in the information technology sector, the USA
Regarding trademarks, of the 9,768,200 applications that were filed in 2016 worldwide, China (37.9%), the US (5.6%) and Japan (4.6%) were the countries that computed the highest percentage of applications in the databases of the WIPO. In countries such as Brazil and Mexico, a filing of trademark applications was observed below 1% overall, 166,368 and 141,726 applications respectively. Agriculture is one of the top three sectors for China's applicants in terms of brands, while the health sector was the most important for the German and US economies.
As can be seen, globalization and therefore trade openness not only grants benefits to companies that participate in the global arena, but also requires being sensitive to regulations and laws of products and services on the subject of intellectual property. This has great importance in the development and competitiveness of organizations and economies in general, since in addition to promoting innovation and creativity, it rewards the effort with economic gains for the inventor; without forgetting that said creation or invention generates benefits or solves problems in society. Therefore, intellectual property is one of the tools that gives countries competitiveness and that promotes economic, social and cultural growth through aspects such as innovation and creativity.
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