Inngot CEO speaks at IP finance event in Korea

Martin Brassell, co-founder and CEO of innovative UK IP services provider Inngot, recently delivered an address on developments in IP-backed lending in the US and Europe at a prestigious event in South Korea.

The event, the 2019 Intellectual Property Finance Forum, was hosted by the Financial Services Commission of Korea (FSC), the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), and took place in Seoul in April 2019.

KIPO and KIPA work together to provide SMEs with financial support for IP valuation so they can get IP-backed funding from banks, investors and government agencies.

Martin Brassell was invited to speak as he is a recognized global expert on the use of intellectual property and intangible assets in raising finance for businesses. He recently co-authored an influential report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Fostering the use of intangibles to strengthen SME access to finance, published in January.

In his address, Martin Brassell explained to an audience of senior Korean government officials, academics and business people:

“There are a number of different ways in which IP and intangibles can be harnessed for lending. They can help lenders become comfortable with cash flow loans; they can be securitised (with care); they can improve risk in venture debt; they can, with appropriate guarantees or insurance support, be collateralised; or they can be purchased by a lender and licensed back to the business. All have been used in various forms. Provided it is legally possible and practical to attach a security interest to these assets in all the key markets, they can provide real ‘leverage’ in times of difficulty.

He added that the “commercial importance of knowledge assets that are not commodities is only going to increase. If we can obtain better data insights on this value, it will enable costs to be driven down and volumes to increase. This data will provide the spread of risk needed for insurers to enter the market: and this, in turn, can satisfy the need for lP assets to contribute to bank capital adequacy.”

He concluded that “the steps announced by Korea in December 2018, in terms of encouraging more equity involvement, engaging mainstream lenders, supporting loan affordability and driving down valuation and due diligence costs, can help to make this happen.”

Inngot offers a suite of online tools to help innovative businesses identify, manage and value intellectual property and intangible assets. In addition to its IP valuation tools, Inngot contributes to the international debate on how best to help SMEs in particular uncover and leverage the value locked up in their IP and intangible assets and offers bespoke IP valuation and technology valuation services.

In addition to the recent OECD report, Martin Brassell has also co-authored Economic Approaches to Intellectual Property, with Dr Nicola Searle (OUP, 2016), and reports and publications for the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), amongst others.