Intellectual Property in a Knowledge Society

Abstract

Ireland is currently experiencing burgeoning inward investment and economic growth. The ability to attract inward investment is largely due to a well-educated and trained workforce and a rapidly developing innovation culture in the universities and elsewhere. Accordingly, the role of the university has changed radically in the new innovation age because of the heightened strategic importance of education in a society which is now truly knowledge-driven. The ability to exploit new knowledge is intimately linked to the protection of new ideas. Ireland, like most of Europe, lags behind the USA in the area of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The authors discuss the importance of redressing this problem as a matter of urgency.