Following an invitation from the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) at a two-day World SME and IP Forum, Dids Macdonald CEO of ACID took the opportunity to raise awareness of the extensive use of unregistered and informal IP rights by the creative industries in the UK. 

The Forum was organised by the European Patent Office (EPO), sponsored by WIPO and held in Munich last week. Statistics from around Europe reinforced the fact that the UK is not alone in the distinct lack of formal IP registrations to support their business models. 

Representatives from many National IP Offices and other relevant institutions in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shared their experiences of work being undertaken to help raise awareness about the significance of IP training, particularly for those involved in training the intermediaries who interface with SMEs in business mentoring. “Train the IP Trainers effectively” was one of the key messages being discussed by delegates. The EPO IP4inno [which you can check out here] is an excellent website offering training modules for those involved in IP mentoring. ip4inno is a project funded by the European Commission as part of the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Its main aim is to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) enhance their understanding and use of intellectual property rights with a view to promoting innovation and competitiveness in line with the European Commission's Lisbon goals. 

Dids Macdonald talked about ACID’s experiences, emphasising the importance of providing one to one IP clinics on a wide variety of intellectual property based subjects. Access to expert help at the end of a telephone and a proactive approach to the communication of an IP strategy, both internally and externally through the supply chain, is paramount for SMEs [Here again funding, training, monitoring and risk management of one-to-one expert advice are all issues. Some can be addressed by collaboration between small design businesses; others not].

Speaking at the event, Dids said, “The UK comprises of many micro and small businesses and designers account for approximately 232,000 of these. However, the majority of them have less than 4 employees and for most it is impossible to take legal action against infringement [The need to distinguish between 'big' SMEs and micro businesses -- in which design seems to be disproportionately represented -- may be important here. Businesses with 4 employees or fewer generally also lack the facility to absorb and update complex legal advice, let alone the ability to make informed strategic design-right based business decisions or fund litigation]. As such, many small firms are isolated and IP law can seem very complex, so it is important to move towards uncomplicated user friendly access to practical IP help and information. Future IP policy must reflect support for commercial growth in business and economic terms and get away from “IP Rights” dialogue. ..."