Property Rights and Innovation

Property rights are at the center of civilization. Without property rights mankind would never have moved beyond the hunter/gatherer stage. The Center for the Analysis of Property Rights and Innovation - CAPRI for short - examines the role of property rights and the enhancement of innovation.

Intellectual property is the form of property right intended to promote innovation, both in terms of expression, where copyright is the form of property right, and in terms of invention, where patent and trade secrets are the methods of protecting and providing property rights.

In recent years new technologies have threatened to upend the traditional functioning of these property rights. Suggestions have been made that privately controlled property rights might not be a particularly efficient way to promote creativity in the era of digitization. It has been proposed that perhaps new and different business models are needed.

The faculty involved with CAPRI are dedicated to learning more about these topics and spreading that knowledge to the rest of society. Many of the faculty are housed within the School of Management at UTD, but the Center does not limit its expertise to those within the school, reaching out to faculty in other components of the university and in some instances to beyond the university itself.