Can someone pls tell me the importance of "intellectual property" in this present globalisation world.?

Question

why is " intellectual property" more important now than say fifty year ago?

Answer 1

because with the advent of better technologies, any country, any company, any one, can copy anything u have created and made popular.  would u think thats fair?  Competition in the market place is a fair game.. but not by copying someone else's creation and claming it to be ur own, then selling it at a much lower retail price bec of low overhead cost.

Answer 2

The other answer sort of has it.  Intellectual property is a bigger issue these days because with the advancement in technology, products have changed.  Products, take music and movies for example, are shifting to become increasingly digital.  On the surface, this can be good for suppliers; digital products reduce the marginal cost of a good to next to nothing.  Think about iTunes.  How much do you think it *costs* iTunes for a consumer to buy and download a song, from a direct-supply standpoint?  Maybe a penny.

The problem with digital products, however, is that since the product is just code on a computer, it is very easy to copy that code, duplicating the product, and distributing it to other people.  These third parties are thus getting the exact product, usually, without paying anything to the supplier.  The biggest impact of this sharing is that the company loses a potential sale; it is not often that someone who has illegally downloaded a music CD, or had a friend burn one for them, will go out and buy the real version after, despite what some people claim.  The other answer seemed to suggest that illegal bootlegging and selling is the worst violation of intellectual property rights, but I don't think that's really the case.

All in all, the big reason why intellectual property has become more important these past years is that the ability to violate it has become increasingly possible and easy.  Also, since any original laws protecting intellectual property were written before the digital age came around, there are many loopholes in the law that make it difficult for prosecutors to crack down on violators.

A brief answer, but I hope that helps.