Accountancy Europe supports the ongoing work of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), with headquarters in Alicante, Spain. We are also a proud member of the “Ideas Powered for Business” (IPFB) Network, which helps unlock intellectual property (IP) opportunities, especially for SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups.
At a recent network event held in Alicante on 28-29 April, Accountancy Europe joined other partners to discuss the impact of IP on driving European competitiveness. From these discussions, we have gathered key conclusions and identified actions for the future.
How to drive European competitiveness and what is the role of IP?
- We agreed on the need to close the innovation gap with other economic powers, such as the US and China as highlighted in Draghi’s report.
- We emphasised the importance of continuing to support EU researchers and enterprises, and of tackling the underutilisation of IP to boost innovation and attract investments.
- We understand the essential link between effective IP use and the performance of start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs and other economic actors.
- We strongly support the implementation of the Competitiveness Compass, including key initiatives such as the Start-up and Scale-up Strategy, the Innovation Act, the Single Market Strategy, and the Competitiveness Fund, all of which are vital for fostering a dynamic and innovative European economy.
Our call for action
We proposed the following actions:
- Facilitate access to IP system for start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs.
- Close the IP skills gap, enhance its enforcement and support its commercialisation.
- Foster access to finance through IP.
- Develop a secondary market platform for IP.
- Envisage IP-related expenditures, design EU-level financial support schemes for IP services, and support the creation of an EU and national guarantee instruments to leverage IP rights.
- Develop a uniform and standardized methodology and associated tools that enable a qualitative evaluation of the IP rights.
- Simplify the fragmented IP support landscape and establish common EU indicators to monitor IP’s impact on innovation.
To understand more about our proposed actions and why they are important, read the full report in the “download” section at the top-right corner of this page.
