The establishment of knowledge economy directly depends on the innovation, production, dissemination and application of knowledge. In this process, whether it is to build an atmosphere to safeguard the interests of knowledge innovators or to effectively promote the dissemination and utilization of knowledge, it is inseparable from the effective protection of the intellectual property system. The role of intellectual property system in the development of knowledge economy is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
First, the incentive effect on knowledge creation.
The intellectual property system grants the creator or owner of intellectual property the exclusive right within a certain period of time according to law, and protects this exclusive right from infringement, and the infringer will be punished by law. With this exclusiveness, the creator or owner of intellectual property rights can obtain economic benefits and recover investment by transferring or implementing production, thus having the enthusiasm and material conditions for continuing research and development, thus mobilizing the enthusiasm of knowledge innovators. According to the statistics of a research institute in the United States, if there is no patent system in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, at least 60% of drugs will not be developed, because the investment in drug research and development is high and the cycle is long, which generally takes about 10 years. In Japan, during the 35 years from 1940 to 1975, only 10 new drugs were created. After Japan implemented patent protection for drugs from 1975, 87 new drugs were created in the eight years from 1983. Therefore, the intellectual property system plays a great incentive role in invention and innovation.
In addition, peers or competitors of intellectual property owners often have to pay high fees to obtain such intellectual property rights or licensed rights, and in many cases, intellectual property owners do not agree to the transfer or licensed use. This makes it necessary for peers or competitors to innovate and create new things on the basis of existing knowledge achievements in order to gain market competitive advantage and obtain independent intellectual property rights according to law. This cycle of continuous progress on the shoulders of others has effectively promoted the progress and development of science and technology.
Second, the intellectual property system has the function of regulating public interests.
Although the intellectual property system protects the interests of knowledge creators, it does not mean monopoly. The intellectual property system has two major functions: one is the protection function, which protects the legitimate rights and interests of knowledge creators, thus mobilizing people's enthusiasm for creative activities; The second is the publicity function, that is, knowledge creators should disclose their creations to the society while applying for intellectual property protection. Protection and publicity are two seemingly contradictory aspects. It is through the regulation of intellectual property system that fairness, justice and rationality are realized by exchanging protection for openness. For example, for technological inventions, because technological inventions are protected by law, there is no need to worry about technological inventions being leaked to the public. The information of these intellectual achievements plays an extremely important role in the re-creation of knowledge. Before scientific research or project establishment, if we can make full use of relevant information and search, we can accurately grasp the development situation at home and abroad, which can not only avoid repeated research and save costs, but also help to seize the time and grasp the initiative of scientific research and production. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, if we can make full use of patent literature information in research and development, we can not only improve the starting point of research, but also save 60% of funds and 40% of time. According to a study by the European Patent Office, if the R&D work of more than a dozen treaty member countries does not search and use patent documents, it will cost 35 billion marks more each year. Therefore, the intellectual property system not only protects the interests of knowledge creators, but also takes into account the interests of the public, which is conducive to mobilizing people's enthusiasm for invention, discovery and creation in all aspects, thus providing more scientific research results and knowledge products for the country.
Third, the intellectual property system has the function of protecting investment.
The development of science and technology needs new investment to make new breakthroughs. The acquisition of a scientific and technological achievement requires a complex process of basic research, applied research and development research, and requires a lot of investment and efforts. For example, a new drug needs more than ten years and hundreds of millions of dollars from research and development to production and marketing. As intellectual property, this scientific and technological invention is an intangible property, which belongs to the category of information wealth. As a "perishable property" in economics, it is easy to lose and difficult to control, because there is almost no cost to copy this knowledge. In today's information age, this phenomenon is more serious. The more intellectual achievements with market prospects, the easier it is to be copied or plagiarized at will. Therefore, the circulation of this intangible property needs to be legalized and standardized, so that the circulation of knowledge products develops in a healthy direction, and the establishment of intellectual property system just meets this need. The intellectual property system ensures that units or individuals who have made significant material and technological investments fully enjoy the legitimate rights and interests arising therefrom by confirming the attributes of the achievements, and protects the competitive advantages of investment enterprises by protecting exclusive rights such as patents, trademarks, service marks, names of manufacturers and names of goods sources and stopping unfair competition, maintaining fair and orderly market competition, correctly regulating people's behaviors by law, and urging people to consciously respect or be forced to respect the intellectual property rights of others. Make the society form a good social environment and a fair and just market competition mechanism that respects knowledge, talents and other people's intellectual labor achievements, and make it have more financial, material and intellectual resources to invest in research and development.
4. It is conducive to promoting international economic and technological exchanges and cooperation.
Knowledge economy is essentially a global economy. Nowadays, the globalization of world economy and science and technology not only creates conditions for the development of knowledge economy, but also highlights the development of knowledge economy. With the development of information network, the speed of knowledge dissemination and diffusion in the world is greatly accelerated, which provides a very good opportunity for countries to obtain knowledge achievements, exchange and cooperation. At the same time, with the increasing proportion of knowledge achievements and products with high knowledge content in world trade, there must be a rule that all countries must abide by. The intellectual property system is the rule in this respect. Although intellectual property law is a domestic law, it is formulated by various countries, but there are many contents in it, such as timeliness, regionality and exclusivity. In order to be in line with international practices, many countries have joined the World Intellectual Property Organization or treaties and adhered to the principles of national treatment and priority. Moreover, the World Trade Organization has formulated the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights from the perspective of developing world trade, and put forward some regulations that countries must abide by in developing world trade. Without such rules and intellectual property system, the introduction, cooperation and exchange of knowledge achievements will be difficult. In today's world, it is impossible for any country to create the knowledge needed for economic development, even in a country like the United States. For developing countries, while vigorously developing high-tech and its products with independent intellectual property rights, it is still an important way to promote their economic development by introducing a large number of advanced technologies and foreign capital from abroad. On the basis of the ruins after World War II, Japan was able to achieve rapid economic take-off, mainly because it introduced a large number of advanced technologies from the United States and other countries. In the era of knowledge economy, the introduction of knowledge achievements and capital, and the international exchange and cooperation of bilateral and multilateral knowledge achievements are bound to rely more on the intellectual property system.