Despite the hype, regionalization frequently appears a better description of world market evolution than globalization. There has been convergence among the advanced nations but in other countries there is a mixed record of take-offs, stalls and nose dives. Given these circumstances, it is important that economics is still trying to come to grips with knowledge-based economic activity and has yet to develop the not-so-simple economics of intellectual property. We have to recognize that information is capital and the discrete piece of information lawyers see as the basis of patents is in reality a large, complex information structure, meshing into elaborate networks. Patenting and other strategies to appropriate benefits from innovation may therefore be more successful than has been conceded generally. Implications extend from domestic innovation to world trade and institutional arrangements.