The Effects of Intellectual Property Rights Protection on Economic Growth

In recent years, protection of intellectual property rights has become more significant. Intellectual property rights can be regarded as the legal rights derived from intellectual activities in industrial, scientific, literature and art fields. Today, most countries seek to find workable models to apply intellectual property for their economic growth improvement. Current study show the effects of intellectual property protection on economic growth through research and development (R&D) expenditures and the number of researchers. Panel data method is used to estimate this effect directly and indirectly for a sample of 35 countries from 1985 to 2005. Research findings showed the protection of intellectual property rights have a positive effect on economic growth directly, and R&D & researchers via intellectual property rights have a positive and significant effect on economic growth indirectly.