In “A Connecticut Yankee in King Authur’s Court” Mark Twain makes an interesting argument for the importance of intellectual property protection. In it, the protagonist argues that no society can advance without a proper patent office. The sustained technological advancement of the last three centuries can be seen as a testament to IP laws, and the economic benefit inventors can derive from their ideas. Globalization is putting strain on these laws and increasing the friction between innovation and piracy. As Jordan Lee points out in this article, countries with the highest patent filings and strongest IP enforcement are also those with the strongest economies. As he says, “innovation plus protection equals prosperity.”
Jeff DeGraff is the Dean of Innovation – an author, speaker, and advisor to Fortune 500 companies and mission-driven organizations worldwide. He’s the CEO and Founder of Innovatrium, Founder of Intellectual Edge Alliance, and Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Jeff co-created the Competing Values Framework and developed the Innovation Code and Innovation Genome methodologies which provide organizations with practical tools to reconcile competing priorities and drive breakthrough performance. His mission is the democratization of innovation: making systematic innovation accessible to everyone, everywhere, every day.