Berkeley Program in Law and Economics

Intellectual property has held great economical importance since the mid XIX century, though protection for the intellectual property has remained fragmented in isolated juridical systems interlinked only for creation or immateriality of the intellectual goods. However, creation may be substituted by information as central element of the intellectual property. Such substitution allows harmonizing it around a single aspect and, through this central aspect, to apply the theory of systems and the economical valuation of the system of intellectual property toward better understanding of the institute and additionally for future investigations. The attribution of values furthermore allows the identification of the economical characteristics of information as intellectual property and with this defines balancing protection strategies (procedure, scope and duration) seeking the efficiency of the intellectual property institutes. Instruments of Law and Economics allow a better understanding - in this context - of intellectual property. Ultimately, the conclusion drawn is the need of protection of intellectual goods as incentive element to innovation, keeping all of the exceptions to protection inside the system of intellectual property as information.