The worldwide IP economy - Reality or utopia?

A safe intellectual property rights (IPR) basis often becomes the decisive competitive advantage in the commercialization of research and development (R&D) results. But many actors in the markets of innovative products claim the lack of transparency in dealing with immaterial goods, especially patents. In this respect the internationalization of R&D adds difficulties, but also chances. This paper tries to categorize the historical and contemporary forces to homogenize the heterogeneous fields of IPR. This includes the question whether an intellectual property (IP) economy exists, is imaginable or only utopian in a worldwide dimension. Which factors play a role?