Risky business: how to keep your Intellectual Property safe

Source: Euronews

Date: 04/10/2019

The Business Planet team heads to Bucharest to see how one firm has been able to safeguard its intellectual property with EU help.

The rise of global competition and the internet means securing a company’s intellectual property (IP) rights, in order to protect its intangible assets, is now more critical than ever for the success of any business, whatever its size. This is especially true for many European companies that retain their competitive advantage through innovation, creativity and quality rather than on price.

The rise of global competition and the internet means securing a company’s intellectual property (IP) rights, in order to protect its intangible assets, is now more critical than ever for the success of any business, whatever its size. This is especially true for many European companies that retain their competitive advantage through innovation, creativity and quality rather than on price.

IPR protection – at the heart of the business

The internet of things – a world where devices, gadgets, and machines are all hooked up to the web so they can communicate with us and each other. Syswin Solutions is a specialist in smart technologies. Based in Bucharest, the high-tech SME has put protection of its intellectual property at the core of the business.

“Patenting our products enabled us to authenticate their exclusivity in the Romanian market. This led to an increase in company revenues, as it ensured a guarantee to our customers, in terms of quality and uniqueness,” explains Razvan Ungurelu, General Project Manager at Syswin Solutions.

Sysagria is one of the firm’s high-tech products. The system monitors crops, providing, among other things, real-time data about the weather, water supply, and soil.

To take the product global, Syswin Solutions got in touch with the European IP Helpdesk. The free-of-charge service gives support and advice to entrepreneurs and companies on how to handle and protect their intangible assets.

“The HELPDESK has been helping us to expand internationally, explains Ungurelu, adding: “They’ve been helping us to enter and understand foreign markets. Most importantly, they’ve been helping us to set the commercial value of SYSAGRIA in these markets.”

An investment, not a cost

Evidence shows that firms, especially small companies, which protect their intellectual property have more than 30 per cent higher revenues per employee.

Despite that, only 9 percent of SMEs compared to 40 per cent of big companies in Europe safeguard their IP.

“Essentially, SMEs often consider IP protection like a cost, not like an investment. And secondly, concerning intangible assets, they don’t understand for real that patenting is not the only way to protection, but also copyright or trademark protection is important,” says Professor Alexandru Marin, a European IP Helpdesk Ambassador.

He adds: “Our role (at the European IP Helpdesk) is to help SMEs understand the value of IP. And to help them monetise their IP rights, and if they need support, for example for the enforcement of their IP rights, we can guide them in the right direction.”