Yorkshire’s best innovators can protect intellectual property (IP) to maximise their gains.
Andy Robinson
The region’s manufacturing talent pool has never been short of ideas, and with a steady stream of innovation coming out of the universities more companies are looking for effective ways of safeguarding their IP.
Registering a patent to deter the copyists is one thing, but business owners welcome the opportunity to develop new income streams by bringing something tangible to the market.
Andy Robinson, partner at Yorkshire-based IP lawyers Kempner Robinson, has seen an increase in activity despite the downturn.
He says: “At times like this it is more important to protect your IP because you need to be able to differentiate yourself from your competitors by offering something unique. People are choosing more carefully what they are spending their money on, so you need to have a stand-out product that can’t be easily copied.”
Robinson insists that concentrating on your IP can unlock access to funds at just the right time. He says: “It’s a huge advantage for a business to have an evolving product portfolio and a valuable IP portfolio to go with it. If you can show that you are looking for ways to come out of the downturn by introducing clever ideas and products, and that you are putting protection in place, investors will be more willing to commit.”
Licensing products
“You need to be able to differentiate yourself from your competitors by offering something unique.”
When money is hard to come by, innovators have the option of licensing their new products to provide a secondary revenue stream.
And Robinson advises businesses to be selective in their licensing strategy and to analyse the opportunities in different areas rather than granting a licence that is too wide.
He says: “Unless someone’s going to pay a sizeable premium you should steer away from giving exclusivity across all fields. You can often get a second bite of the cherry by licensing the same IP elsewhere.” A global IP protection strategy could cost a fortune, but Robinson says there are cost-effective ways of safeguarding ideas.
“If you can register your IP you’ll get much better value for your money than by cutting costs and leaving yourself open,” he adds.
This article appeared in the June 2009 edition of Yorkshire Business Insider. To subscribe visit our online Shop.
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