The Creative Economy. How People Make Money From Ideas

What is creativity? Simply the ability to generate something new. What is the creative economy? It is the ideas business - the means by which new ideas and inventions are marketed and sold. It consists of all creative acts in which intellectual work creates intellectual value. Just a land defined the agricultural age and capital the industrial age, intellectual property is the defining asset of the creative economy. Copyrights and patents are its currency. This economy is worth more than $1,5 trillion worldwide. Both America and Britain export more copyright than cars. John Howkins, a leading figure in communications and media, explores how we can harness these creative businesses, focusing on the fifteen fastest-growing copyright and patent industries. Howkins has interviewed some of the leading entrepreneurs and practitioners in design, nuclear physics, film and fashion, from David Puttnam and Anita Roddick to Terence Conran, Harry Kroto and Richard Rogers, who discuss the ways in which they have channelled their own creativity. Outlining his ten rules for success in the creative economy, Howkins gives wide-ranging and practical guidance on how to turn creativity into cash. He also explores the role of the World Trade Organization and looks at the implications for the global economy of recent attempts to patent genetic material and even business methods. throughout, his emphasis is on the fundamentals of the creative economy - what we as individuals want, and what we are good at.