There are 196 countries in the world, and virtually all of them have intellectual property legislation. In today’s global market, international protection of innovation is a must. For a company to grow, it must protect the use, sale and/or manufacture of its technology. In the absence of such protection, technology is copied without permission, and the organizations that invested heavily to develop that technology fail to receive a return on their investment. Thus, if your business is based on proprietary technology, protection of that technology in foreign countries is extremely important.
On many of my flights to Asia, I have had opportunities to chat with business owners who make or sell their products in foreign countries. Sometimes, I am told that foreign patent protection is not desired, often because of the costs of procurement and enforcement. While the owners acknowledge that theft of their technology is certain, the way that they deal with this fact is by continually innovating and staying ahead of their copycat competition. Others tell me that their foreign manufacturing is covered by nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), and hence they don’t see the need for patent protection. Their foreign manufacturing partners have valuable proprietary data that enables the products to be produced. Yet, there is only minimal concern that the technology will be stolen, because of a belief that an NDA provides adequate remedies.
