Mei-lan Stark, senior vice president Intellectual Property, Fox Entertainment Group, and the 2014 INTA President and Chair of its Board of Directors, discusses the value of intellectual property.

Many people interact with brands and trademarks on a professional basis every day. From the marketers and graphic designers who conceive new trademarks to the intellectual property (IP) lawyers charged with protecting them, it can be easy to forget that trademarks serve not only as the legal means to protect our brands, but as the most important signifier in the shopping aisles. Consumers not only rely on trademarks to shop with confidence but also to make quick repeat purchases time and time again. In doing so they are constantly interacting with trademarks yet, at the same time, they may not be aware of the enormous value that trademarks bring to global commerce and how they foster innovation and support jobs.

Brands—Reputation and Image in the Global Marketplace, a major new report released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), explores in detail the role that trademarks and brands play in the global economy. Brands inform purchasing decisions. They represent an array of attributes such as quality, functionality, social responsibility and reliability that align with an equally vast array of consumer preferences. As the report explains, this is how trademarks—which protect a brand’s uniqueness—provide a business with competitive advantage. The need to maintain that advantage, and to meet the shifting needs of the marketplace, spurs innovation and the creation of new products and services—a process that not only improves choices for consumers but also stimulates global economic growth.

We also have hard economic data to support WIPO’s analytical study. A 2013 study (entitled Intellectual property rights intensive industries: contribution to economic performance and employment in the European Union) carried out by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the European Patent Office (EPO) found that IP-intensive industries account for almost 39% of the total economic activity (GDP) in the EU. It also explains how one in three jobs in the EU relies on these industries and that wages in these industries are 40% higher than in non-IPR intensive industries. The situation is similar in the U.S. Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus, a 2012 study published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, found that IP-intensive industries accounted for 34.8% of the national GDP in 2010. And every two jobs in IP-intensive industries supported an additional job elsewhere in the economy. In total, 27.7% of all jobs in the U.S. were attributable to IP and, on average, paid 42% more than jobs in other industries. 

The International Trademark Association (INTA) and its partners in the IP community want the public to understand the role that trademarks play both in their daily lives and in the global economy. We also look to foster relationships with other groups outside our community, including marketing associations, consumer protection groups and trade unions. Most importantly, we want to bring consumers into the conversation as they are perhaps the most important stakeholders in IP.

IP nurtures innovation and creativity in the every corner of the globe, and where IP rights are effectively enforced, healthy economic growth, innovation and competition, and broad consumer choice are more widely enjoyed. As the world’s markets become increasingly globalised and the knowledge-based economy expands, so too will consumers and national economies have an increased need for fair intellectual property protection. This trend will no doubt continue well into the foreseeable future, and the task of educating the public about the benefits of IP—far and wide and on every possible occasion—has never been more important.

The reports referred to in this article can be access via the following links: