European Companies Squandering their I/P?

An October 2004 survey of 300 companies across Europe, commissioned by UK law firm DLA, concluded that European businesses are "squandering the competitive advantage that IP can give and are potentially losing out on £billions of revenue."

They found that less than 40 per cent know the value of their IP, only half (52 per cent) have a documented IP strategy, and only 57 per cent have a formal system in place for identifying infringements of their IP. The survey also found that only 53 per cent have board-level representation for matters relating to brand, intellectual property or research and development, only 38 per cent of businesses questioned have ever done a valuation of their IP, with only 19 per cent conducting one in the last year.

Commenting on the findings, Jeremy Dickerson, Head of Intellectual Property at DLA, said, "The old adage 'use it or lose it 'could not be truer when it comes to IP management: by not using it, organisations risk losing their competitive advantage." Ian Harvey, Chairman of the UK Government's Intellectual Property Advisory Committee (IPAC), who has given his support to the survey reportedly commented, "This IP survey by DLA shows that many of our larger European companies do not take the management of their IP seriously, despite it being a huge source of competitive advantage for them. In my experience, companies that do it well are usually the global leaders in their fields. However, this will not be achieved unless IP becomes part of corporate strategy and there is board commitment. I urge business leaders to take the findings of this survey seriously and consider it a matter of survival ? they must realise that intellectual property is a competitive advantage to die for."