WIPO's new strategies on global intellectual property infrastructure

This article provides a broad view of the current position and anticipated development of intellectual property and patent information, in the wider context of innovation enhancement worldwide. It traces the continuing rise in the value of IP, as reflected in company intangible assets and in rising numbers of patent applications. In creating a better knowledge infrastructure to facilitate these developments, the author notes its great importance and the differing problems that need addressing in this area across the spectrum from least developed to fully developed countries. In these contexts, he outlines a number of strategic goals and recommendations of WIPO and their likely impact in solving the problems of creating effective, coordinated, and accessible databanks in IP, patent information and scientific non-patent literature. Specifically he points to, for example, the increasing value of the internet in these fields, both through databases and, increasingly, through social networks.