It was not that long ago that the value of American businesses was measured in factories, natural resource holdings and real estate.  Increasingly, the balance sheets are more likely to contain a listing of a company's intellectual property as a major component of its value.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recently created the i-©®eaTM curriculum to teach students the value of intellectual property and why they should respect the intellectual property of others.  Explaining why the curriculum is important, the Director of the Patent and Trademark office noted that "U.S. intellectual property is worth more than $5 trillion. . ."

When you think that the gross domestic product of the U.S. was approximately 14 trillion in 2007, that makes intellectual property a pretty important piece of the economy.

Finally, a note to all of those who claim that the economy is in the toilet, take a look at the GDP for the last sixty years.  Since 1980 the GDP has doubled every decade.  Even accounting for inflation - that is a pretty impressive run.  Unfortunately recessions are a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Just because some banks made stupid loans to home owners who clearly could not repay them does not mean the sky is falling.  The Federal Government continuing to spend hundreds of billions more than it already takes from us and promising to spend even more - that could be a different story.