Valuing Intellectual Property in Japan, Britain and the United States
By Dr. Ruth Taplin (Ed)
Routledge; 1 edition (27 May 2004)
ISBN-13: 978-0415654753
Review by Sean Curtin
Ruth Taplin has compiled a stimulating, and in many respects ground-breaking, book which comprehensively covers a topic of vital importance to the rapidly evolving global economy. The book addresses the urgent need to re-evaluate risk and understand the true value of intellectual property (IP) in the light of the fact that intangible assets comprise up to 70 per cent of the assets of most major companies today.
The book's various contributors provide the reader with a clear and balanced overview of the emerging issues surrounding the valuing of intellectual property.
It also points to profound changes occurring in Japan concerning IP that have hitherto been unrecorded, especially in English language literature. The days of valuing IP as the sole preserve of accountants and lawyers are apparently in the past, and it has now become an interdisciplinary exercise involving business practitioners, insurance specialists, financiers, business analysts, venture capitalists and those who hold intellectual property assets such as media publishing, pharmaceuticals, electronics, software and universities.
In the book, experts in their field explain how the interdisciplinary nature of valuing IP is evolving with for example the growth in insurance solutions to protect IP. Within this context, the work assesses the growth of IP in different sectors in relation to national agendas in the countries that have most influenced these developments, mainly the USA, Britain and Japan. The United States recognised the value of IP with the landmark Bayh-Dole amendment which also influenced Britain and Japan.
The reader also learns that the Technical Licensing Organisation (TLO) has spread to Britain and Japan where it has been modified and cross-influenced the USA's TLO system with the latter now bringing forth issues concerning the re-appraisal of valuing IP at the point of commercialisation from universities to industry.
Japan has recently privatised all its universities to facilitate cooperation with industry in licensing inventions. Unique IP divisions within the universities are being created to promote this process.
Japan is attempting to invent its way out of economic inertia as it has done in the past and in the process is re-evaluating everything from brand valuation to the role of entrepreneurship to university-industry relationships; providing lessons that can be learned from globally.
In many respects, Japan has been neglected, despite it being the second largest economy in the world, especially in relation to patents and IP. According to the book, Japan has not been given prominence in specialized literature because of the language barrier, its inward looking tendencies, the complexity of the patent system, which is the book skilfully demystifies, and various cultural practices.
This book redresses such omission, especially in English language literature, by chronicling and explaining all the current changes happening in Japan with respect to IP in a clear and coherent fashion, which shows the inter-connections between these processes in the USA and Britain all within an interdisciplinary context.
The valuing of intellectual property is an art not a science and this stimulating book is a must-read for all those involved or connected to intellectual property and its valuation in any form.