The

Abstract

The last several centuries have seen a transformation in the ways in which wealth is generated. As society has transformed itself in the postindustrial era, "knowledge" and "information," as opposed to land and physical property, have increasingly become the primary sources of wealth generation. For example, historically, it was ownership of the forest that was the principal channel for the derivation of riches. Today it is the possession of the patent in the pharmaceutical product derived from the leaves of the trees of the very same forest that is the fountain from which the greatest wealth springs. It is not surprising, therefore, that the strategy of wealth maximization has shifted from the desire to accumulate physical property to one in which the domination of intellectual property rights ("IPRs") has become preeminent.