Risch, Michael --- "IP and Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Economy: A Case Study" [2012] ELECD 549; in Carpenter, M. Megan (ed), "Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies

Editor(s): Carpenter, M. Megan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857934697

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: IP and Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Economy: A Case Study

Author(s): Risch, Michael

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

8. IP and entrepreneurship in an
evolving economy: a case study
Michael Risch*

INTRODUCTION

That intellectual assets--whether protected or not--are of growing impor-
tance in evolving economies is practically unassailable.1 Unfortunately,
getting that message across to members of those economies might prove
difficult. This chapter takes a ground-level look at one law school's
attempt to aid an evolving economy through entrepreneurial legal assist-
ance. The West Virginia University Entrepreneurship Law Clinic (here-
inafter "ELC") was formed to help entrepreneurs and small businesses
throughout the state to start and run businesses. The goal was to help
those businesses leverage their intellectual property to drive economic
development in the state.
The results, however, were unexpected. To be sure, the ELC helped
many entrepreneurs, but little of that aid involved intellectual property
(IP), with the notable exception of trademark protection. The problem


* ©2011 The author thanks participants at the Evolving Economies Conference
at Texas Wesleyan Law School for their helpful comments and the West Virginia
University College of Law for permission to tell this story and share the data.
Research assistance was provided by Cailyn Reilly, Gabriele Wohl, and Jenny Maxey.
1 See, e.g., Megan M. Carpenter, `Will Work': The Role of Intellectual Property

in Transitional Economies ­ from Coal to Content, in Shubha Ghosh & Robin Paul
Malloy, (eds), Creativity Law and Entrepreneurship 49 (Cheltenham, UK,
Northampton, MA, U.S.A.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011); Elias G. Carayannis,
et al., Technological learning for entrepreneurial development (TL4ED) in the
...