Vigorous Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws, Essay Example

The major impact vigorous enforcement of the intellectual property rights has had positive effects on the economy. Intellectual property rights encourage innovation among individuals which in turn promotes the growth of a country’s economy. (Maskus, 2000) People tend to spend a lot of resources in terms of money and time into inventing and building new devices.

The time invested in testing them, finalizing the design and finally introducing to a target group market proves worthwhile in giving revenue or returns to the individual of company. The elimination of intellectual property rights can lead to negative effects on investment. This is because the net return expected from a particular innovation’s investment would decline (Greenhalgh, & Rogers, 2010). The possibility that any interested individuals, business investors or the country’s governments would finance and spend on the innovation decreases.

Who gains and who loses from strict enforcement of these laws?

The prospective gains and losses in a place with strict enforcement of intellectual property laws are mainly contingent on the competitive structure of markets. Obviously, the short-term loser in the given scenario would be the consumer. Throughout the short period of an intellectual property’s life or a patent’s life, the owner of the business idea has an isolated control on his or her own particular product (May, 2013). This is the worst thing for most of the consumers that would be involved or interested in the product. The resultant feature is that the prices tend go high, while on the other hand the supply is low. For example, this can be witnessed in a scenario that involves sensitive and property with high demand like medical treatments, prescription drugs or other medical research.

References

Greenhalgh, C., & Rogers, M. (2010). Innovation, intellectual property and economic growth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Maskus, K. E. (2000). Intellectual property rights in the global economy. Peterson Institute.

May, C. (2013). The Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights: The New Enclosures?. Routledge.