Innovation Asset Blog

Report links copyright ownership to business health

Popular discussions at the intersection of copyright and profitability traditionally center on lost sales triggered by the scourge of piracy, but technology law expert Jonathan Band recently examined the issues with a broader perspective on overall business health. In a unique longitudinal study, Band discovered that firms within copyright-intensive industries still maintain noticeably stronger financial indicators than those posted by their mass market counterparts.

Band and his research associates began by highlighting five leading companies in the copyright-intensive categories of motion picture production, publishing and software development. Those 15 firms were compared against equivalents hailing from the construction, transportation and mining sectors.

"We found that the firms in the copyright-intensive industries were more profitable than the firms in the other industries in every period examined," Band wrote in his executive summary. "Additionally, in this 10-year period, the copyright-intensive industries' profit margins on average grew by 3.98 percent, while the other industries' profit margins on average decreased by 0.75 percent."

This revelation is encouraging news for professionals within copyright-intensive industries, as well as entrepreneurs plotting their entrance. But the benefits of these comparatively high profit margins extend well beyond the boardroom. As the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed earlier in the year, intellectual property-intensive industries on the whole contribute approximately 40 million jobs to the American economy.

Peter Ackerman

Peter Ackerman

Founder & CEO, Innovation Asset Group, Inc.