In the two years we've published the new Technology Review, we've offered you a number of editorial packages on subjects we thought were worthy of more than just one article: nanotechnology, for example, and human-machine symbiosis. But none of the packages we've published in the past is as important, in my view, as this issue's Special Section on intellectual property.

Two trends are converging to make intellectual property-or IP, as insiders call it-particularly salient now. The first is that cheaper and more effective manufacturing, aided by computers and robotics, is driving down the cost of making material goods. The ultimate effect of this tendency is to make materials a less important component of finished products. The second trend is the changing nature of the corporation, triggered partly by the Internet. As companies outsource more of their operations and manage relations with their affiliates electronically, the essence of the firm shrinks to a central core. Prominent in that core is the company's intellectual property, including its treasured brand and all the assets that support the brand: patents, trademarks, traditions.