New figures published today show that UK business is building success through ‘knowledge’ and ‘creative assets.’ Investment in ‘intangible’ assets has increased by more than 10 per cent to £137.5 billion from 2009 to 2011 and nearly half of this investment was protected by formal Intellectual Property Rights. Of this, 46 per cent was protected by copyright, 21 per cent by unregistered design rights and 21 per cent by trade marks.
Data published by the Government’s Business for Innovation & Skills Department shows investment in intellectual property and ‘intangible’ assets is growing and continues to outstrip investment in tangible assets, such as buildings and machinery, which fell slightly from £93 billion to £89.8 billion. The figures signal the growing value UK businesses attach to knowledge, innovation and creativity.
A second report published today (31 March 2014) outlined the government’s response to improving the understanding of IP assets and their value to help use them more effectively when accessing the finance needed for business growth.
Minister for Intellectual Property, Lord Younger, said:
“These investment figures show the strength and value of the UK’s creative and knowledge-based industries. Continued growth in investment in ‘intangible assets’, along with the fact that nearly half are protected by formal intellectual property rights, demonstrates that some UK firms do understand their real value.
“However despite these positive figures, as the economy grows a real challenge remains for firms to understand their intellectual property and how it can help them to access funding to invest in the first place. The government has set out an action plan, to help address the missed opportunities and help businesses, and the lending community, to realise and maximise intellectual property assets.”
The government’s response, to the Intellectual Property Office commissioned ‘Banking on IP?’ report sets out a range of recommendations for government and industry to take forward. These recommendations are designed to break down the barriers to access for finance for businesses who want to protect their IP.
The recommendations include:
- Building understanding of IP in businesses and financial services sector through improving bankers’ training, and using existing tools and new case studies, to increase awareness;
- Supporting a productive dialogue between sources of finance and IP-rich firms by developing an IP Finance toolkit; and
- Creating a system to increase lenders’ confidence in assessing the value and risks of IP assets through developing appropriate insurance policies, assessing existing IP trading platforms and reducing risk through better IP focused credit scoring.
The estimates of investment in IP rights were produced by Jonathan Haskel, and Peter Goodridge of Imperial College, London and Gavin Wallis of the Bank of England. They build on work commissioned by NESTA to estimate intangible investment by UK business as part of the ‘Innovation Index’.
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