Through both theoretical and empirical analyses, this work explores debates surrounding the role of patenting within the contemporary innovation system, notably those relating to university research and technological competitiveness. The text highlights the growing tensions between the IP system and the wider innovation environment, identifies the potential for and limits of universities' engagement with the system and explores the impact of new IP policy on innovation. The book provides an analysis of a range of problems which many governmental, corporate, professional and academic groups are currently confronting. The issue of intellectual property has come to the fore in policy debates over innovation strategy, debates which can only be answered from an interdisciplinary perspective.