The Idea Economy: Battle over right to sell knowledge

International Herald Tribune: 『The Idea Economy: Battle over right to sell knowledge』　ものづくりよりも知財ビジネスの競争。

This reality is transforming business and creating new diplomatic fault lines between continents. Some companies ? Thomson of France, in consumer electronics, and BTG of Britain, in technology, for example ? can make more money selling access to their ideas than from building anything themselves. The right to profit from a breakthrough idea can be so valuable that the contest over the concept can be more decisive than the competition for consumers, as Sony and Toshiba demonstrate in their tug of war over whose next-generation DVD patents will win out, long before the discs come to market.