Intellectual Property Industry Contributions and Trade Protection Policy

Innovation protected by Intellectual Property (IP) rights is key to creating new jobs and growing exports. Innovation has a positive pervasive effect on the entire economy, and its benefits flow both upstream and downstream to every sector of the U.S. economy. Intellectual Property is not just the final product of workers and companies -- every job in some way, produces, supplies, consumes, or relies on innovation, creativity, and commercial distinctiveness. Protecting our ideas and IP promotes innovative, open, and competitive markets, and helps ensure that the U.S. private sector remains America's innovation engine. This book attempts to identify the first-order players that are growing IP in the U.S. economy and protecting their innovations through patents, trademarks, or copyrights. These IP-intensive industries support tens of millions of jobs and contribute several trillion dollars to our GDP, and represent the leading edge of our economy that is built on the ingenuity of the American people.