The intellectual power struggle

With only days remaining to find out if my BlackBerry goes dead it strikes me that the new frontier in technology is truly the assets of knowledge. At stake for RIM (Research in Motion)is if they can continue to transmit data over cell providers. Now I will spare you the lengthy discussion of court and legaleeze, but really the future stake holders of this digital wasteland will be the knowledge barrens. So only in a half a decade we have gone from the oil barrens to the knowledge barrens. I wonder if this term is on Winkipedia? So the keys to the future may truly be in design and this knowledge mining. What does it take to be on the new frontier these days?