It meant that they adopted the thesis that developing countries should have the heavy and labour-intensive industries and the Western world should have the thinking stuff. However, it is not only new hi-tech industries which depend on intellectual property. Volvo recently announced the sale of its car manufacturing division to US giant Ford. This came on the back of previous consolidation in the market which saw Germany's Daimler-Benz snap up US manufacturer Chrysler. What is underpinning these moves is the massive costs involved in research and development to produce safer, sleeker, and more environmentally friendly cars.
Intellectual property is actually the driving force behind the deals.
This has meant that IP lawyers, and certainly the bigger companies, have a far more sophisticated attitude to intellectual property than they used to. Simon Walker, a partner in Taylor Joynson Garrett's corporate department, is very aware of the increased importance of IP to his work. Now, lawyers will make sure that they are satisfied that the statements in the prospectus can be quite clearly derived from the raw data. The octopus effect However, not all companies are as aware of the critical importance of intellectual property rights as lawyers believe they should be. Additionally, a large proportion of companies that do have an IP protection plan admit that they are not policing it properly.