داوود نجفی

In recent years, supporting intellectual property right has gained more significance. Intellectual property rights could be considered as legal rights resulting from intellectual activities in industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Today, many countries are seeking practical information about using intellectual property to improve economic growth. Intellectual property rights have an important role in long term, economic growth of communities so international institutions such as Global Business Organization and Global Intellectual Property Organization have been advising their members based on providing and reinforcing this determinate in recent years. Also the gap in intellectual property regimes among developed and developing countries is considered as one of the reasons of differences in economic growth and development in these countries. Intellectual property right is important from the viewpoint of developing countries and in relation with its impact and outcomes on economic development, and stable human development. Considering the global changes and internationalization of production, distribution and consumption, it is necessary to observe all aspect of intellectual property rights. In this research, we intend to study the relationship between intellectual property rights and economic growth for 10 countries of ECO members during 2000-2009. Analysing the effect of intellectual property rights on economic growth is focused on the quantity index of intellectual property rights. The key finding of this study suggests the significant effect of intellectual property rights on economic growth of the ECO member countries.  JEL Classification: E11, C52, C22, B52, O48, O43, P48.