Intellectual Property Regimes: a Comparative Institutional Framework

Abstract: The paper aims to provide a unified framework for the analysis of the governance of intellectual property resources, starting from methodological assumptions drawing on both New Institutional Economics strictu sensu and a broader institutional approach that allows to encompass the analysis of private orderings along with that of markets and formal and informal institutions. According to this view, the governance system adopted for a given set of knowledge resources – an intellectual property regime – can be defined as the combination of the entire set of institutions that contributes to defining, both ex-ante and ex-post, the nature and extent of the bundle of rights to intangible resources attributed to right-holders and to enforce the defined specification. The analysis highlights the main characteristics and trade-offs involved by the adoption of different intellectual property regimes, linking them to the relevant features of knowledge domains.