4. THE IMPORTANCE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 4.1. Overall importance Experience accumulated over time has demonstrated the cross-cutting importance and advantages of intellectual property. In particular: • It stimulates creativity and innovation, by rewarding the work done by creators and innovators and safeguarding the intellectual property rights they have acquired; • It promotes an appreciation of technical and scientific knowledge through its use in achieving the goals of national development; • It attracts foreign investment through an effective legal system for the protection of intellectual property rights; • It promotes the resolution of the local problems of communities through solutions provided by creators and researchers; • It stimulates research and innovation based on the concrete reality of the country; • It makes the country more attractive to researchers, preventing a brain drain and producing a "brain gain"; • It facilitates access to technological information and to the transfer and dissemination of technology; • It facilitates the transfer and application of the knowledge produced in the universities and research institutes to industry and other major sectors; • It generates income for the universities, research institutes and enterprises that produce knowledge; • It protects investment in scientific research; • It prevents the usurpation and illegitimate use of knowledge; • It combats practices constituting unfair competition; • It adds value to domestic products; • It safeguards and preserves local knowledge, cultural expressions and folklore; • It reinvigorates the cultural industry; • It shows appreciation for the work produced by artists and rewards their efforts; • It reassures, protects, promotes and benefits communities in the exploitation of traditional knowledge.