The UK's Intellectual Property Office website has recently sprouted three new publications from its Economics, Research and Evidence team. In short, they are
* Film, Television & Radio, Books, Music and Art: UK Investment in Artistic Originals (16 pages, here; executive summary here), which reviews the definition of artistic originals and official estimates of investment in originals as recorded in the UK National Accounts. New data seeks to estimate the value of the UK stock of artistic originals. The report concludes that approximately £1.1bn more was invested in original artistic work in the UK in 2008 than had previously been estimated. Combining these data with new depreciation rates suggests an upward revision of £3.5bn to the UK stock of artistic originals in 2008.
* The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in the UK Market Sector (42 pages, here; executive summary here). This report estimates (a) the level of UK market sector investment in knowledge assets protected by Intellectual Property Rights and (b) the impact of investment in those assets via their contribution to labour productivity growth in the UK market sector.
* Trade Mark Incentives (66 pages, here; executive summary here). This report investigates potential links between trade marking and performance. The researchers document an overview of corporate trade marking activity in Britain, analyse the role of trade marks in the innovation process for firms and their impact on households, and explore possible links between trade marking and branding.
These reports represent the current trend towards weighing and measuring IP in economic terms and detaching it from what is unkindly called lobbynomics. I've not yet had a chance to read any of them and will welcome a short review on this weblog from anyone who has.
