Developing countries told to protect creative goods, output from universities
Business World, MANILA, PHILIPPINES

Developing countries must catch up with their richer counterparts in terms of protecting and promoting the creation of intellectual property, such as research findings, industrial designs, and crop species, or else risk losing out bilions of dollars in revenue to the more IP-savy nations, experts said in a forum yesterday.
To do so, the protection of said goods must be taught not just to lawyers, but to the rest of the academe, government officials and private firms.
"Ninety-seven percent of patents registered now are owned by developed countries...IP accounts for 80% of corporate wealth in the United States," World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Worldwide Academy dean Mpazi Sinjela said in a forum.
Trade secrets, patents for technology, and other IP goods make up $30 billion-$70 billion of the assets of top firms such as CocaCola, Microsoft, and Nokia, Mr. Sinjela said.