ABSTRACT
Here we highlight the importance of patents in the modern economy. To gain an understanding of the effectiveness of the patent in today's panorama the chapter elaborately examines their impact on a) the economic growth and b) shareholders’ wealth. The chapter, thereafter, investigates the usage of patents in various business activities, viz. licensing, purchases and sales, internal uses, mergers and acquisitions, and securing finance. Securing finance is done mainly in two ways – equity and debt. Debt financing is further subdivided into bank loans and securitization. Thus, the potentialities and efficacies of patents have been dealt in the chapter. The chapter focuses on securitization as it is a popular and structured means of accruing funds and offers benefits to the owners of all segments including patent owners. But it is witnessed that patent securitization market is lagging far behind the non-IP securitization market in spite of all potentialities, and an existence of a vast gap between the two ends is also identified. The chapter leaves the reader to ponder the likely reasons behind such a gap.
