IP helps startups raise finance. A 2023 report from the European Patent Office identified that 29% of European (38 countries including the UK) starts-up had filed registered IP rights and that the filing of patent and trade mark applications in the early growth stage increased the likelihood of funding with a 6.4 times higher likelihood for patents and 4.3 times higher likelihood for trademarks.
When engaging with SMEs to provide them with advisory services such as Investment IP Readiness Assessment, we regularly find that they do not know what intangible assets they own, they have no or very limited documentation and they are not sure about what is already protected or could be protected by IP rights such as patents, trademarks, copyrights or trade secrets.
Without knowing what they have SMEs will not be able to protect and exploit the intellectual property which may be critical to their expansion potential. They will struggle to protect their competitive advantage and to raise funds from investors who will want to have some clarity on the company’s IP position.
An IP audit starts by an IP professional collecting information from a business about the registered and unregistered intellectual property that they have and provided an informative and useful report which will also include a high-level overview of their commercial potential and potential risks and some initial IP strategy recommendations (e.g. filing a patent, registering a trademark).
First, an IP Audit report is also positively received by investors as it demonstrates the company is taking IP management seriously. Second, it provides an inventory of the company’s IP assets owned by the company. Some ownership issues may have been identified during the audit process and the company could be able to show implemented corrective actions, e.g. having all employment contracts include an IP clause. Third, it can demonstrate the alignment between the IP and business strategy. Fourth, it can highlight potential licensing opportunities beyond the protection of the company’s competitive advantages.
The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) IP Advance Scheme provides a contribution of £2,250 inc. VAT for an IP Audit as long as the business contributes an additional £750 including VAT for an IP Audit carried out by an IP professional.
Applications and funding for IP Advance are via the relevant agency depending on the location of the business:
The regional business advisors at the agencies listed above have IP experience to decide if an SME is suitable for the UK IPO funded IP audit.
Ambitious innovative SMEs often have a strategy to use their IP to build a moat around their competitive advantage. An IP Audit will be the basis for an IP strategy which will be aligned to the SME’s business strategy. By identifying existing, developing and missing elements in each layer of IP protection (patents, trademarks, copyrights, design rights, know-how and trade secrets) the IP audit can be the basis of an IP roadmap highlighting what additional IP assets are needed and how they all fit together to protect the company’s competitive advantage.
Dehns is one of Europe’s largest IP firms helping inventors, universities, SMEs and corporates identify, secure and defend patents, trademarks, design and trade secrets.
Dehns has multiple regional offices in the UK (London, Brighton, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham) and very broad technical expertise across numerous industries to ensure they will recognise and understand SMEs potential IP assets. Additionally, Dehns has IP consultants providing commercial IP advisory services to value IP, support IP commercialisation and position IP as a value driver with investors.
IP professionals at Dehns are very experienced in working with SMEs, helping them build an inventory of their IP assets, protecting them, identifying potential risk and opportunities and providing a pragmatic action plan. Contact us on info@dehns.com to carry out your IP audit or if you would like an initial discussion before making use of the UK IPO funding.