If anything contextualizes the impact of a globalized economy, it is the financial collapse of 2008 - a catastrophic economic breakdown that rippled across the globe eliminating jobs and impeding growth in sectors from financial consulting to automobile sales to high-tech manufacturing.

The legislative aftermath - and the controversy surrounding it - is a separate debate, but the speed and power by which the burst of one region's economic bubble spread throughout the world exemplifies the need for organizations - both private and public - to protect themselves in this new global framework.

Patent and trademark law is one area in which economic globalization has outpaced its own progress, as current laws tend to impact only local or regional activity, whereas the global innovation-based economy increasingly requires a body of laws and regulations that can be enforced across borders.

Recently, patent authorities in the U.S. and Europe partnered to fuse their own patent classification systems under the European standard - the intent being to simplify the process by which patents are registered through different regions.

Still, acquiring a patent does not immediately extinguish threats of IP theft or patent infringement. In fact, innovation-based businesses are being urged to adopt intellectual property management systems to protect their operations.

"Once you get the patent, you have to pay attention to who may actually be using your invention," Manny Schecter, chief patent counsel for IBM told Inc. magazine. "Parties who infringe [on] your patents don't have to do it on purpose to be infringing. There's no intent requirement for patent infringement."