ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests the potential significance of effective intellectual property protection for developing countries. As part of a country's infrastructure, intellectual property protection can be readily examined for its contribution to technical change, knowledge diffusion, human resource expansion, technology financing, business growth and economic development. A major effect of strong intellectual property protection is to shift many of the costs associated with technology development from the public to the private sector of the economy. The effect of intellectual property protection is largely invisible. Intellectual property protection is the tool which releases that resource. The incremental improvements in technology which create new companies and new jobs are less likely to take place. The improved water pump, the better bicycle gear, the new fire alarm system, the muffler clamp, the fruit picking tool, and the thousands of other advances which can readily be invented in many countries, is less likely to materialize.
