This volume focuses on intellectual property and charts the global transition towards intellectual capitalism with technology-based corporations as prime movers. It offers a comprehensive overview of the history and fundamentals of intellectual property as well as an introduction to the field. The author seeks to shed light on the economics and management of intellectual property in large corporations in Europe, Japan and the USA. Special emphasis is given to strategies for the acquisition and commercialization of new technologies, patent strategies and strategies for secrecy and trademark, technology intelligence and corporate management of intellectual property. The book includes an in-depth study of leading large corporations in Japan - Canon, Hitachi, Toshiba and Sony. In conclusion, it explores the possible evolution of intellectual property management towards a distributed intellectual capital management in the context of a wider transition to intellectual capitalism, fuelled by new technologies in general and new infocom technologies in particular.