MindWealth

A veteran businessman assesses the state of intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom and beyond.

In this debut business book, Jones looks at the development of IP concepts in the U.K. as well as their current situation in the country. He also compares the British IP infrastructure and culture to that of the United States. The book recommends that readers pay closer attention to intellectual property in all its forms—including patents, copyrights, and trademarks—as a means of developing economic growth through manufacturing. Jones calls for a reevaluation of government involvement in IP creation and regulation, as well as a shift in mindset to draw more attention to IP creators. In support of his call for a sharper focus on intellectual property rights, which he abbreviates as IPR, Jones suggests new terminology for the subject, including “iprimigration” (immigration to work for companies with desirable IP), “iprology—the study of IPR and its impact on people’s wealth,” and “iprastack—a stack of IPR leading to the final product or service.” Neologisms aside, the prose is often convoluted (“I introduce the US Congress because the US Constitution and Bill or Rights formalised the Congress’s role in intellectual property before it was termed such and has possibly skewed the international IP landscape”), resulting in an overlong book. Some portions might have benefited from further review, including unsubstantiated assumptions (“In a leap of logic, which I could link conceptually through investment models...”) and notations (“It has also been reported (source unknown) that intellectual-property theft (in the US?) is up from $59 billion in 2001 to $250 billion in 2004”). On the whole, however, Jones displays a clear command of his subject matter, both conceptually and factually. The book’s arguments might have been rendered more concisely, but they do present a coherent, reasonable analysis of the role of intellectual property in the 21st-century economy.

A thorough examination of the economic, political, and cultural treatment of IP.