>As far as "pure IP" industries, you can't forget pharmaceuticals as well,
>but IP actually pervades all industries, with patents and trade secrets a
>key part of the economic portfolios of companies ranging from oil
>companies to the car industry to the whole retail sector. As I noted, the
>key issue is not what is the value of IP as a percentage of revenues, but
>IP's value in determining profits.
This emendation may have already been suggested by Doug and others. The importance of patent protection would seem certainly to differ across industries. E.g., more important in industries like pharmaceuticals and speciality chemicals where products tend to be longer lived and relatively easy to copy than in industries such as many facets of electronics where products cycles are very short and secrecy is presently a more effective weapon for effective exclusion.
yours, rnb