Or put another way, is the investment in intellectual property worth it?

Did you know that:

• only 48% of knowledge based investment [meaning mostly intellectual property] is protected by intellectual property rights, [UK IPO]. Was this an informed choice or a missed opportunity?

• intangible assets [again meaning mostly intellectual property] account for 80% of company values, 30 years ago it was 20%, [WIPO];

• SMEs which own intellectual property have almost 32% more revenue per employee than SMEs that don’t, [EUIPO].

So the answer seems to be yes it is. We would add but only if you do it right. You need to get three ‘big picture’ things right about intellectual property to give value and achieve enhanced returns on investment. These are

• Make sure you have legal rights protecting your intellectual property to prevent other competitors using your ideas. Patents and trademarks are important but so are good processes and contracts to keep knowledge confidential.

• Make sure you own the rights and ownership of those legal rights can be proved. If you don’t, you can’t enforced those rights if necessary to prevent others infringing the rights or gaining access to the intellectual property.

• the intellectual property legal rights relate to some product or services or a business as a whole which produces an revenue stream which is shielded by the intellectual property from direct copying. Or that such an revenue stream is likely after, say, investment. This may seem obvious but it is surprisingly common for owners of intellectual property rights to assert that the rights have substantial value independently of any value associated with profitable use in a business context.

So intellectual property that is well protected, clearly owned by a business, and supporting enhanced earnings through bigger market share and/or higher profit margins has real value. Because this advantage is backed by legal rights which can be enforced and transferred, the intellectual property is a valuable business asset and contributes to increased shareholder value.