OECD work on intellectual assets and value creation

This page is directly accessible at www.oecd.org/sti/ipr/iavc 
Last update: 26 May 2008

Intellectual assets have become fundamental elements for value creation. The expansion of the services sector, globalisation, deregulation, and the emergence of new information technologies have brought to the fore the issue of how knowledge is created, disseminated, retained and used to obtain economic returns. This has led to a structural change, from traditional scale-based manufacturing, which mainly relies on tangible assets, to new innovation-oriented activities which rely largely on research and development, patents, software, human resources and new organisational structures – collectively referred to as intellectual assets. 

At its meeting in 2004, the OECD Ministerial Council proposed a programme of work aimed at improving understanding of the role played by intellectual assets in value creation, growth and economic performance. The study launched in response, "Creating Value from Intellectual Assets", was presented to the Ministerial Council in 2006.

Recent OECD work and events on the subject include:

• Intellectual Assets and Value Creation: Synthesis Report
  This brochure provides an integrated perspective on OECD work on IAVC as of May 2008, covering the macro, regional and firm levels.
• Policy Brief: Creating Value from Intellectual Assets
  This policy brief looks at how better understanding and improved disclosure of investments in intellectual assets, as well as diffusion of best practices, would benefit managers, investors and policy makers.
• Intellectual Assets and Value Creation: Implications for Corporate Reporting
  The basic tenet of this report is that providing the market with sufficient and material nonfinancial information about intellectual assets improves the exercise of ownership rights and helps discipline management and boards with positive economic consequences.
• Conference on Intellectual Asset-based Management: Toward Innovation and Sustainable Growth
  Tokyo, Japan, December 2006 
• Creating Value from Intellectual Assets
  Report to the 2006 OECD Council Meeting at Ministerial Level.
• Valuation and Exploitation of Intellectual Property (STI Working Paper 2006/5)
  This paper examines recent evidence and also reviews macroeconomic statistics related to the development of technology markets. It examines approaches to the valuation of patents and the policy initiatives undertaken by OECD countries to foster patent valuation and exploitation.
• Tax Treatment of Business Investments in Intellectual Assets: An International Comparison (STI Working Paper 2006/4)
  This paper examines the tax treatment of corporate expenditures on selected intellectual assets and develops an indicator of the relative generosity of tax systems in OECD countries to such investments.
• International Conference on Intellectual Assets and Innovation: Value Creation in the Knowldge Economy
  Ferrara, Italy, October 2005 
• Conference on Intellectual Property Valuation and Exploitation
  Berlin, Germany, 30 June-1 July 2005
• Forum on Business Performance and Intellectual Assets
  Paris, France, October 2004 
  Rapporteur's summary | Background and issues paper
  

Information on other OECD work related to intellectual property rights can be found at www.oecd.org/sti/ipr.