Global IPR Challenges for Entrepreneurs in the Digital Economy

The digital economy has emerged, in large part, as the principal engine of global innovation, driving the expansion of both data-driven services and platforms, and disruptive technologies across a range of sectors. The rapid speed of digitalization fuels and foasts entrepreneurial development and the launch of new businesses, but it also creates a unique and complex set of challenges across the spectrum of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in protecting inventions. Today’s entrepreneurs are confronted with significant challenges in a fast-changing legal environment characterized by jurisdictional differences, a fragmented local and global legal environment, and the disruptive effects of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and cloud computing. This study views and addresses the principal IPR issues confronting entrepreneurs today, focusing on the important areas of software patentability, copyright protection, protection of trade secrets, and data ownership. The study highlights the issue of legal ambiguity and practical limitations within existing global systems of IPR and cross-border enforcement regimes by assessing their effectiveness across a range of IPR. This study also reviews certain potential policy interventions that may enhance IPR systems and organizations, and further serves as a framework for the harmonization of international law and the creation of a safe space for innovation within the context of the digital economy.