Beyond The Hype

Much has been made about whether anything is ‘new’ about the ‘New Economy,’ with the conclusion being that we now are a knowledge-based society. But in what sense, if at all, are we any more of a knowledge society now than we were in Neolithic times, the Renaissance, and th1e Industrial Revolution? What is the role of intellectual property (IP) and the intellectual commons in the process of innovation, growth and economic development? What role does technology and technological knowledge play both in the process of innovation and economic growth and in the protection of IP itself? To answer some of these questions requires a clear understanding of ‘the nature of the beast,’ what we mean by the New Economy, how we measure the level and growth of innovations, how we test for association/causation between knowledge (both embodied in human capital and disembodied) and any consequences it might generate (both good and bad), and how we protect IP.