Intellectual property is essential to the development of innovative economy. Due to the complicate relationship among intellectual property, innovation and economic development, it’s necessary to make a deep economic research about the operation of intellectual property institution, to find out the internal interactive relations among intellectual property, innovation and economic development. Although the economic research about intellectual property increased rapidly since 70s of last century, it’s still not enough to meet the need of building of an innovative State. In essence, the economic research of intellectual property belongs to the scope of New institutional economics. The research scope of intellectual property economic covers the research of economic mechanism of intellectual property institution itself, as well as those policy measures related to S&T, financial, tax, and etc., to stimulate the creation and circulation of intellectual property. The economic research of intellectual property should carry out from three aspects, that is, logic analyses of the structure of intellectual property institution, the equilibrium analyses of the effect of intellectual property institution, and the evolutionary analyses of the development of intellectual property institution. It should make a clear view about the difference among intellectual property economic, knowledge economy, innovation economy, technology economy, and information economy.