Malackowski opines in IP Law 360:

Much of the United States' manufacturing base has moved offshore — most notably to China — to lower cost labor markets. Our service economy is likewise moving to India and other regions where Ph.D. engineers can be hired for less than $25 per hour.

If manufacturing has left for China and service has left for India, what is left? The very foundation on which our country was built more than 200 years ago — innovation. More specifically, our national treasure is innovation and the intellectual property law that protects it.

IP as national policy is our leadership role to lose. If we do not recognize this, we will suffer from emerging economies that compete with us in manufacturing today but are laying the seeds to compete in an IP economy.

Japan has elevated IP to national policy. China’s patent office was not established until the mid 1980s and already as many patents are filed each year in China as are filed in the United States.

Without the protection patents afford, new developments are simply whisked away to the lowest cost market. Without the protection of patents, the economic returns necessary to invest in innovation disappear.

As a nation we must renew our focus on IP as a matter of national policy and global competition. Our policies, both public and private, must recognize and reward innovation and creativity. Doing so will create new products, services and related high-paying jobs.