Cultural heritage digitization and related intellectual property issues

The role of cultural heritage for defining the national identity, sustainable development and compatibility of the creative industries is indisputable. In view of the new digital possibilities in preservation, safeguarding and popularization of the cultural heritage, the intellectual property-related issues raise serious challenges. These circumstances call for large-scale strategic planning on cultural policy including the protection of cultural heritage as intellectual property; its digitization as means for its commercial use and its recognition as creative industries' business asset. The study researched the economic symbiosis between cultural heritage and intellectual property, it reveals the economic characteristics of cultural values and the suitability of the intellectual property system to provide them protection, and it identifies the right's holder of the intellectual property over the digitized cultural values and creates a step by step guidance for intellectual property management via digitization process. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.