Safeguarding IP: the key to the UK’s economic potential

Launched by the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the Secure Innovation campaign aims to provide specialist security advice to startups and early-stage technology companies. A key component is the Secure Innovation Security Reviews scheme, providing advice on safeguarding intellectual property (IP) to organisations employing up to 250 people. To take advantage of the scheme, businesses must apply through Innovate UK and make a donation of £500, with the Government covering the additional £2,500 required to carry out a holistic review to identify cyber-related and other security threats that could undermine their commercial success.

 

Data about intellectual property understanding and protection among UK SMEs is variable. A report published on IP awareness by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) shows that 63% of SMEs take steps to protect their intellectual property in some way, everything from using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to keeping trade secrets or filing patents. However, just over a third of these businesses are using some form of registered IP right, such as a trade mark, registered design or patent. Of particular concern is the finding that 87% of early-stage startups don’t use any form of IP protection. This means a competitor could steal their intellectual property and start using it, blocking them from registering for monopoly rights in the future.

 

All innovative small and medium-sized businesses should consider how to protect their intellectual property, and there are three potential strategies they could employ.

 

Firstly, they could keep their innovation a trade secret. Whilst not appropriate in every scenario, if a technology is hidden from view and therefore difficult to reverse engineer, this strategy could be a sensible option and allow the company to get ahead of the product development curve.

 

Secondly, they could patent the innovation, which means a description of how it works would be published about 18 months to two years later.

 

The third option is a ‘defensive publication’, which essentially means sharing the innovation in order to make it public and accelerate market growth. This would create a window of opportunity for the business to commercialise its innovation in a rapidly developing market, whilst creating sufficient ‘prior art’ to block competitors from patenting it in their own right.

 

Whilst the Secure Innovation campaign will be open to all startup and early-stage technology companies, it is specifically targeting businesses in areas of strategic opportunity as identified in the Government’s Plan for Change – spanning everything from AI to life sciences, and engineering materials to renewable energy systems. Designed to combat the advancing global cyber threat, the campaign is helping UK-based SMEs to consider all threats to their business model, whether personal, physical or cyber-security-related, and take the necessary steps to protect their organisational knowledge.

 

As well as deciding which IP protection strategy to adopt, businesses should consider whether specific functions of the business need to be protected against IP theft. For example, there may be a need for employment screening, when people join and/or leave the business, to ensure they aren’t infringing any third-party IP rights or walking away with the company’s crown jewels. To ensure that all cyber and IP-related risks can be tackled in a holistic way, an organisation-wide audit should be carried out to assess where knowledge exists in the organisation and how it might be protected.

 

Building a resilient technology company at a time when the global cyber threat is intensifying requires a robust focus on protective security. A clear understanding of where IP exists and how best to protect it is critical to achieving commercial success. 

 

Early-stage and startup technology companies can find out more about the Secure Innovation Security Reviews scheme at Innovate UK’s website here. 

 

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Jim Ribeiro is a partner and patent attorney at European IP firm, Withers & Rogers.

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and tumsasedgars