IP and Business Growth Survey: Summary of Responses

IP and Business Growth Survey: Summary of Responses

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has just published the results of its IP and Business Growth Survey 2024.

The survey ran from 20 November 2023 to 2 February 2024. While the actual number of responses was small – only 83 after sifting out foreign companies, companies which Companies House has no details for, and duplicates – the results largely line up with similar, larger studies carried out by bodies such as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and European Patent Office (EPO).

The summary of the responses is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ip-and-business-growth-survey-summary-of-responses/ip-and-business-growth-survey-summary-of-responses

Most of the respondents were micro and small businesses (68%); 35% of companies were less than five years old, 22% five to 10 years old, 20% between 10 and 20 years old and 23% more than 20 years old.

More than a third of the companies that responded – 38% -- said they had achieved growth of more than 20% a year in either employees or turnover or both in the last three years – so growth companies, according to the accepted definitions.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they had some form of IP protection; 46% said they had two or more forms.

Please select the types of IP protections your business holds

Source: Intellectual Property Office UK, IP and Business Growth Survey, July 2024

The IPO says that a quarter of survey respondents with IP (25%) hold two types of IP rights, 21% hold three types of IP rights, and 22% (15 respondents) hold more than three types of IP rights. The most commonly combined IP rights were copyright and trade secret – 28% held both of these rights.

When asked about their business’ strategy for IP protection and monetisation, nearly half (47%) strongly agreed that they had a strategy, with 19% agreeing. Only 7% of IP holders in the survey said they did not feel that they had a valid strategy for their IP protection and exploitation.

Respondents that agreed or strongly agreed that they had an IP strategy in place cited a range of benefits, including revenue generation from licensing and/or sale of their IP and the importance of experience and know-how to the company. One respondent said they would not be in business if they did not protect their IP.

Amongst those respondents whose companies own IP, over half (59%) said IP has positively affected their business growth to date; 19% have observed no effect of IP on their business growth; 14% don’t know how IP has affected their business growth; and 7% said they had had observed a negative effect of their IP on their business growth.

Of those who said their IP had had a negative effect, the financial challenge of enforcing IP rights appears to have been the main reason.

More than a third of those respondents with IP said they had tried to assess its value; most (59%) have not. Of those respondents that have tried to assess the value of their IP, 9% do it annually.

Reasons for getting an IP valuation include:

Source: Intellectual Property Office UK, IP and Business Growth Survey, July 2024

The survey also asked what respondents have used their IP for in the last three years.

Of the respondents with IP:

- 32% have used IP in a pitch to attract an investor or investment into their firm

- 19% have licensed IP rights to a third party

- none have sold IP rights to a third party

- 1% (one respondent) has used IP as security or collateral for a bank loan

- over half (37 respondents, 54%) have not used their IP in any of the above ways

The IPO also asked whether respondents would be interested in using their IP as security for a loan: 34% said yes, 35% said no, and 31% don’t know.

The IPO also asked a series of questions about IP insurance; it plans to investigate the availability and understanding of IP insurance and what its benefits might be in the near future.