Communication Tools

For some companies, intellectual property litigation is a bet-the-company proposition and the same communications rules apply as with any other high-stakes cases. The media campaign levels the playing field, influences juries and judges, and ensures fair if not favorable coverage.

The only difference is that the substance of the case might be more complex, and the media more challenged to get it right.

Yet intellectual property is no longer only about companies suing each other. It’s no longer just a matter of trying to convey complex legal and scientific concepts to important audiences.

Today, intellectual property is about international relations and international communications as well. For a manufacturer in Kansas, or a regulator in Washington, DC, it means conveying a sense of public urgency about counterfeit goods, about consumers being cheated, about U.S. jobs being lost.

For the booming economies of Asia, intellectual property is at the heart of their relationships with the rest of the world. How corporate chieftains and public officials publicly respond to what the Chinese say about intellectual property will decisively affect bottom lines in the short term and the shape of world markets in the long term.       

For some foreign governments, full participation in global trade is a social and economic necessity – but only possible if they can credibly communicate their full adherence to global intellectual property standards..

 “Copyright” and “patent” and “trademark” are no longer the sole concerns of lawyers. They are keywords in the realignment of global economic power. The inevitable battles will be won in local newspapers and trade journals no less than in courtrooms or the corridors of the World Trade Organization.