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This article considers innovation, intellectual assets and intellectual property rights (IPRs) since 1990, with particular regard to the high-income countries. It begins with a discussion of the changing nature of innovation and the increasing importance of intellectual assets, then continues with a discussion of IPRs and the incentives for innovation. It describes the strengthening of the international framework for patent rights. In the case of high-income countries, strengthened patent protection is found to have a positive association with the evolution of selected indicators for international economic flows and domestic innovation processes. In these countries, a number of complementary conditions may be present that facilitate the exploitation of IPRs, pointing to an area for further research.JEL Codes: O31, O34, F43