‘Knowledge economy’, an economy that creates, manages and uses knowledge for growth, is now attracting more and more attention in Sri Lanka. It is true, as Stanford Economist Professor Paul Romer explains in his Theory of New Growth, ‘knowledge’ has become ‘the basic form of capital’ and drives the economic growth today.
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| Dr. D. M. Karunaratna |
Intellectual property embraces the results of human creative endevours including literary and artistic works, performances of performing artists, sound recordings, broadcasts, inventions, industrial designs, trademarks and service marks, protection against unfair competition, undisclosed information, geographical indications, layout designs of integrated circuits and new varieties of plants. The law of intellectual property recognizes and protects, among other things, the rights of the creators encouraging them to further their creative efforts and facilitating the dissemination and application of the results of creative efforts for the benefit of both creators and society as a whole.
The areas such as promotion of national creativity, protection and management of the results of creativity, facilitation of transfer and management of technology, attraction of investment, enhancement of R&D activities, development of human resources and stimulation of entrepreneurship are some of the essential components of an environment conducive to a knowledge economy. Intellectual property which concerns creation, management and protection of knowledge can greatly contribute to developing and maintaining such an environment.The economic dynamism of intellectual property is multi-faceted. A few of them may be briefly highlighted as follows.
Incentive for inventiveness
It is the human experience that the nations which are creative and innovative have better chances of spurring the economic growth. The creation of knowledge is an indispensable component in any economy. Intellectual property is always active as an incentive for creativeness and innovativeness. The law of patents, for example, operates as an incentive for inventiveness by recognizing and providing material benefits to the inventors. A patent confers on the inventor exclusive rights to commercially exploit the patented technology and to restrain others from violating such rights for a specific period of time. The patent protection not only brings him the material benefits but also paves the way for further research and development. Moreover, patent documents are a vast and valuable source of technological information which serves to stimulate and promote inventiveness. To cite another example, the copyright regime protects the rights of the authors of literary and artistic works thereby setting the domestic authorship in motion and promoting the national creativity.
 Enhancing investment
The flow of foreign investment is caused and facilitated by several factors. A strong Intellectual Property System is part of the legal and institutional framework which encourages the flow of investments. It also plays a vital role in the formulation of investment decisions and strategies.
The investors, foreign or domestic, would be interested in protecting their Intellectual Property rights such as trademarks, trade secrets and technology in making their investment decisions and implementing such decisions. Moreover, a strong and effective Intellectual Property System provides a better commercial environment for the domestic industries and enterprises to compete with foreign industries and enterprises.
Development of traditional craftsmanship
Like many other developing countries, Sri Lanka is abundantly rich in her traditional art and folklore. Traditional artistic work is a vast source of creativity. The traditional craftsmen who design various and diverse creative works must be able to derive material benefits from their works. An industrial design, which may be defined as the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of a useful article, has a tremendous impact on marketing the goods. Legal protection for such designs and models would naturally increase the creative spirit and help industrial development. Such designs may also be protected under the copyright law as aesthetic works applied in industry. Whatever the nature of the protection may be, such works find profitable markets – nationally and internationally.
Promotion of trade
Intellectual Property system makes a pivotal contribution to the promotion of trade – internal and external. A dynamic commercial climate is essential for the acquisition and application of modern technology. Promotion, application and exploitation of indigenous innovations and creations occur only in a place where an attractive and competitive commercial environment exists. A strong Intellectual Property System embracing the areas such as trademarks, inventions, industrial designs and trade secrets stimulates and enriches the domestic commercial activity and environment thereby contributing to the economic growth. The active trademark system of a country, for example, is a clear indication of its vibrant and enterprising economic activities. A mark is always an asset to its owner. It improves the market position and promotes the export possibilities of its owner. A mark identifies the goods or services concerned and their source and quality. The modern technology is always essential for maintaining and improving the quality of any given goods or services. The application and exploitation of new technology means the increase of production, demand and employment opportunities. It should also be noted that a mark acts as an instrument of consumer protection in that it identifies the particular good or service, its source and its quality discouraging the acts that mislead the consumers.
Industrial and Commercial Planning
Competitiveness is part of free and fair trade. Success in competitive trade depends on various factors including proper commercial and industrial forecasting and planning. Intellectual Property is significantly useful in planning and devising commercial and industrial strategies. For example, patent system provides information as to the status of the respective technology avoiding duplicity of research and inventions and disclosing the nature of the technology available. The patent information also gives details regarding those who are active in the particular area of technology, their technological activities and places where they are active and have patent protection. This information is important for devising industrial and market strategies. Similarly, the trademark activities of an enterprise are a clear indication of its positive market participation. The trademark activities are also a source of information as to the nature of the business activities of the enterprise concerned. This information is important for other enterprises in planning their market strategies.
Technological information
An application for a patent not only discloses the invented technology but also contains the information on the existing technology related to the invention. Thus, patent documents carry a vast volume of technological information. Such information is unique in the sense that it appears only in the respective patent documents. Once the patent is granted, the information relating to the newly invented technology can be used by anybody for non-commercial purposes such as R&D activities and teaching. The patent documents make available technological information for research, identify alternative technologies, evaluate any specific technology offered for acquisition and use, indicate those who own the technology and who are active in the specific field of technology, reveal the current status of the technology and present solutions to the problems in the particular area of technology. Such information therefore helps the development of industry and industrial planning and strategies, promotes research and obviates the risk of wasteful duplication of R&D activities and inventions. Thus, the patent system reflects the level of technological development and plays a significant role in the development of any country.
Helping transfer of technology
As stated above, the patent documents are a vast and unique source of information relating to technological, commercial and legal regimes. They contain the most recent and uniform information. Such information is not generally disclosed in any other source or form. The patent information is classified according to the fields of technology. It contains materials as to the applicability of the particular invention in industry. In short, patent information may be the most modern and comprehensive information which is available to the public on the specific field of technology. The patent system also facilitates the transfer of technology by creating opportunities to meet the suppliers and recipients of modern technology. These documents contain names and addresses of the owners of the technology and the institutions which are engaged in research in the particular area of technology. Moreover, the patent system encourages the transfer of technology by protecting the rights of the owners of technology. Once they build up the confidence that they would get their due shares, the owners of technology will not hesitate to enter into transfer of technology agreements. The recipients derive benefits, financially as well as technologically, because they come to know from the patent documents the nature of the existing technology, future prospects and what they exactly going to acquire.
Literary and artistic works
Creativity in literary and artistic domains is one of the fundamentals of a progressive society. The law of copyright and related rights acts as a stimulus for such creativity. The protection accorded to the rights of the authors of such works would ensure benefits to them, in terms of recognition and finance, thereby encouraging them to enhance their creative exercise. Such an environment facilitates domestic authorship and “creative industries” such as audio-visual works, broadcasting, computer software, data procession and book publishing. The expansion of other related industries will occur thereby increasing the employment opportunities and improving national economy.
Training and Education
Dissemination of knowledge and enhancement of training, particularly in science and technology, is decisively important. Any developing country should give priority to human resource development. The development of domestic teaching and educational materials and the promotion of national authorship are, in this context, essentially helping meet the shortage of experts and expertise in the developing world. It is hard to stimulate and promote national authorship and creativity without compensating the authors for their creative efforts in educational material and the publishers for the investment made in the publication of such material for dissemination. The Intellectual Property system attempts, through the copyright regime, to help promote authorship by safeguarding the rights of the authors and publishers while recognizing the larger social interests.
Research and development
The R&D activities involve many factors including financial and human resources. Those who invest money, time and skill in R&D activities expect compensation for their efforts. In the absence of a working Intellectual Property system, they would not be able, as the competitors are free to use such R&D results without making any payment to them, to recover their investment. Only the Intellectual Property system ensures the protection of the R&D results thereby encouraging the R&D activities. As mentioned above, the patent documents contain technological information which is not available in any other source. They describe the invention(s) in the light of the state of art and contain information which is uniform, new and classified according to the subject of technology. Such information is not secret at all. It can be used for further research and development. It actively avoids the duplicity of research and inventions thereby saving resources and time for other research. The nature of the development in the particular area of technology can be ascertained from patent information. This information also shows what kind of solutions are available and not available enabling the inventors and researchers to select the area of subject for further research.
National assets
Sri Lanka is blessed with many national assets which fall within the parameters of Intellectual Property. These national assets can, with the combination of organized human capital and the proper management, greatly contribute to the economic growth. For example, our geographical indications such as ‘Ceylon Cinnamon’ and’ Ceylon Tea’ are capable of generating more income from the respective produce. The traditional knowledge of the Sri Lankans which spreads across many facets of human life such as health, agriculture, food and food security and the genetic resources endemic to Sri Lanka can, through research and commercialization, be a vibrant source of wealth creation.
Conclusion
The industrialized nations have long recognized and used Intellectual Property as an important instrument in the economic and technological advancement. Many developing countries are also following a similar path. It is widely acknowledged, with empirical evidence, that successful use of the Intellectual Property System by those concerned such as industries, R & D institutions and enterprises greatly contributes to their success – nationally and internationally. Their success is a clear indication of economic growth and development of any country. We in Sri Lanka are now in the process of reconstruction and redefining our development goals and attempting to integrate the national economy into the knowledge-riven global economic landscape. Against this backdrop, it is time for us to take a serious note of the promotion of national creativity and the role of the Intellectual Property system in the overall economic growth.
(The writer has written a book titled ‘Elements of the Law of Intellectual Property in Sri Lanka”.
See book cover). |
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