The protection of intellectual property: Issues of origination and ownership

Western intellectual property protection is based on the twin premises that individual people can originate and own ideas. Because these premises are not universally accepted, differences in laws and enforcement exist in the global market. The authors present a framework for describing these differences and discuss it in terms of relations among developing nations, between developed and developing nations, and between all nations and indigenous peoples. They conclude with a discussion of implications for marketers in several industrial sectors.