The advertising industry plays a key role in marketing strategies of enterprises. Advertising has become an important strategic tool for enterprises wanting to stand out or position themselves in the market place. The importance of advertising is increasingly appreciated by enterprises given the intensification of competition among producers/providers of goods and services.
Technological advances have enhanced the capacity of enterprises to reach out to potential customers in distant markets. At the same time, customers continue to be faced with multitude of products and services in the market place from which they have to choose in order to have optimal satisfaction and value for their money. This reality has lead to the growth of the Advertising industry and advertisements are the main products of the industry. However, for an advertisement to be released to a potential market, it requires inputs from a combination of creative works, most of which are protected by intellectual property (IP).
WIPO’s publication “Managing Intellectual Property in Advertising Industry” provides details of the value chain in the preparation of an advertisement, the types of IP that are associated with a particular creative work contributing to the advertisement, important issues in managing IP in the advertizing industry and some best practice case studies.
