Intellectual Property in the Managerial Portfolio

Preface

The term “intellectual property” first appeared in European business literature in the middle of the nineteenth century referring to a certain type of asset. Its use gradually increased in frequency in that area as the century wore on, becoming better understood and crossing borders until international agreements defining the various sorts of intellectual property began to appear. By the 1880s, the concepts underlying the definition of intellectual property, the bases for the values of the various types of such property, and agreement in general on how such property might be protected to its owners became sufficiently well understood so that the Paris Convention of 1883 was confected to protect patent and related industrial property rights ...