The usefulness of intellectual property rights in selected areas of museum activity

As intangible resources, intellectual property rights are difficult to measure. The search for ways to measure and research them and their impact on the current activities of nonprofit organizations such as museums is important because it translates into the effectiveness of the institution’s cooperation with the environment and the stabilization of the organization over time. I aimed to identify the usefulness of intellectual property rights in the context of three main areas of museum activity: heritage collection and preservation, research and education, and sharing and access to heritage. To achieve the goal, I conducted empirical research among museum employees from Poland and other European countries, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Canada. A total of 190 respondents completed the survey. I determined the usefulness of intangible resources not by the characteristics of these resources, but by the key areas of museum activity resulting from the ICOM definition. Research results indicated that the most useful intellectual property rights were copyrights to collections. In selected areas, rights to employee works, databases, and know-how, namely implicit specialized knowledge resulting from employee experience, were also useful.