Businesses in third world nations and developing countries, like Brazil, the Asian Tigers, and India, often ignore the existence of patents, copyrights, and other proprietary information, sometimes with the knowledge and even the aid of their governments. The developing nations have all of the labor and materials necessary to produce a valuable good at a cheaper price, they simply lack some patent or other exclusionary legal device that is effective in a nation halfway around the world.
Enforcement is negligible, if possible at all, and the profits can be enormous.
Even among the more developed countries and the G-7, there is a high amount of IP infringement and outright theft. No nation, including America's own apple pie-fed businesses, can claim purity in the area of IP theft. The most common method of protecting technology transfers across international borders is a licensing agreement or franchise contract . Of course, this is not as simple as filling out a form, and it almost always requires obtaining local legal help with the foreign nation's IP laws. Once the IP protection is obtained, the holder then licenses the business in the foreign country to use the information or technology in the other country.