ABSTRACT
Intellectual property issues have been formulated mostly in terms of legal and regulatory aspects. In the case of electronic publishing, as with a number of other technology-based industries, there has been concern on the part of government and international bodies to tighten intellectual property rights (IPRs). Much is written in the legal literature about defending intellectual property and a considerable amount in the economics literature about the efficacy of IPRs. The main concern, however, in this chapter is with creating and managing intellectual property (IP) in a context where its existence is reputed to be threatened by competition that may be legitimate or may not, notably piracy. When we speak of creating IP, we do not particularly mean its original spark of inspiration (if that ever exists), but taking things from that point up to the stage of commercialisation by the company or industry. 1 The managing of IP, which includes the traditional legal and economic issues, has to be considered in the light of how it is first created and commercialised in fast-moving industries.
