Newman: Should Canada treat its intellectual property as a national asset?
Chairman of Canada 2020, Senior Columnist with ipolitics.ca
Asking this question is to answer it. Of course we should! Under what conceivable construct should we not? There is no serious country in the world that does not consider its intellectual property a national asset.
Everything from patents on scientific breakthroughs to copyrights on popular music is intellectual property. And all of it is an asset to the country which owns it.
Espionage in the 21st century is as much about stealing intellectual property as it is about defence and military strategy — although sometimes both are the same thing.
Obviously, intellectual property is a national asset. As such it should be development, nurtured and protected.
