Patents needed for economic transformation

The Scottish Government’s new “Strategy for Economic Transformation” for the next decade has been drawn-up. The strategy focuses on the three areas of: promoting investment, start-up business ventures and new green industries, and its goal is to outperform economic growth over recent years.

Intellectual Property (IP) is surely an essential tool for each of these three areas. Investors are attracted and comforted by IP rights that make market penetration and maintenance easier. On the flip side, start-ups can secure investor funding more readily and also punch above their weight when entering the market. And in green industries - as in any new area of technology - companies need to “stake their claim” early if they want to reap the rewards of their innovations. This is true both early in market adoption but also as the market matures, and more competitors begin to try to get a piece of the pie.   

The Government’s strategy document speaks of facing a choice over the next decade between Scotland’s economy either ‘leading or lagging’. A key marker in leading is innovation, and a key indicator in innovation is patent protection. Too long many have falsely looked on patents as too difficult or too expensive. To the contrary, like any business asset - if used correctly and wisely - a patent can be a business’s key to unlocking success. This is true whether at early-stage investment, when securing the market, or as part of an exit strategy. And, of course, there’s the tax savings available through Patent Box.

In Scotland and throughout the UK, we have well developed skills in servicing the energy and offshore sectors. These skills can be transferred to sectors such as offshore wind, and that is clearly already happening. However, new technologies always mean new technical problems, which in turn need new technical solutions. It is in the ripe fields of such technical problems that innovative solutions can be harvested and commercially valuable patent protection delivered.

I’m sure that we all want to see from the green technologies sector the same business successes and engineering expertise that we have seen in conventional energy technologies over the last five decades. However, if we are to see these, we need to be aware of how these past successes were carved out. For many innovative companies, patents and IP were and undoubtedly still remain a prime-factor in those successes.