We know the importance of knowledge management for the development of organizations, regions and countries and the need for protecting the same by intellectual property laws when transformed from intangible to tangible assets. This paper studies the link between Knowledge Management (KM) and Intellectual Property (IP). The paper begins with the history of both subjects and ends by studying the linkage between these subjects. The study concludes that countries with weak protection of IPR should develop measures for promoting protection of IP, as well as allow technological development and encourage marketing, inventions and innovations. They must be accompanied by measures to promote the increase of human capital so that they can identify market opportunities and promote a culture of innovation.

Knowledge Management (KM) efforts, which include on-the-job discussions, formal apprenticeship, discussion forums, corporate libraries, professional training and mentoring programs, have a long history.

Ives et al. (1997) trace the history of KM back to the earliest civilizations. The palace archives of Sumer and Aklad and the extensive cuneiform archives discovered recently at Ebla in Syria, all more than 4,000 years old, were attempts to organize the records of civilization of government and commerce, so that the information contained therein could be used to guide new transactions and to prevent the loss of knowledge from generation to generation. This imperative to preserve knowledge eventually led to the great libraries of antiquity, the most notable was the Library of Alexandria in Egypt which was founded in the Third Century BC and lasting almost 1,000 years. The library contained more than 500,000 handwritten works, copies of which were made and disseminated throughout the world.

Knowledge Management Journal, Knowledge Management (KM), Intellectual Property (IP), Techno-centric, Organizational, Ecological, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).