Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Intersectoral Interactions

Nowadays there is a tendency to consider knowledge as a direct production input in analytical approaches. Investment in knowledge can increase the capacity of production inputs and since knowledge capital enjoys an increasing rate of return to scale it is considered as an effective factor in the long term economic growth. In the world, private enterprises carry the main burden of knowledge production and R & D expenditure; therefore, they only make an investment when they can benefit from its exclusive rights and protection of IPRs can provide the legal framework for the right holders to exclusively enjoy their intellectual rights. The main assumption of this paper is that protection of IPRs can improve the knowledge-based sectors of economy. Accordingly, using an input-output approach, the paper aims to investigate the economic effects of stimulating knowledge-based sectors on all other economic sectors in intersectoral interactions. In this paper, after reviewing the indicators of the economy of knowledge, knowledge based sectors were identified in Iran's economy and the relationship between these sectors and Iran's economic system was investigated. The study shows that in Iran's economy several Knowledge-based sectors have less flows on other general sectors and in most of the cases affecting the other sectors in the same groups and less on the other groups, in other words, it means that Knowledge and innovation will stimulate the same sectors in their group more than the other sectors.