By William Bird

At the LES conference “Commercial side of IP,” in Warsaw Poland on 18 November, 2015, a participant and speaker (see acknowledgements) raised a question as to the future evolution of global IP and the role of licensing and cross-licensing in it. The opinion was expressed that IP should be free to evolve without a need for revolution. An aim of the question was to begin a process of the IP community accepting and motivating a debate on the future evolution of IP. According to the participant this debate should not end up with a certain conclusion but should evolve in time and help the IP community to adapt itself to changing circumstances whereby in an evolutionary process the best adapters and the best adapted should win through. The following is a first take on this question.