Smaller Companies Unaware of Their IP Assets

May 23, 2012

Smaller Companies Unaware of Their IP Assets

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) organized a May 21 side event during the World Intellectual Property Organization’s standing committee on patents to demonstrate how the patent system works to support research and development, technology transactions and innovation, using case studies from a Turkish university as well as Brazilian and German industry.

The session, “Making patents work for economic and technological growth: what is needed?” exemplified what small and large companies, and universities, need in practice to make the patent system work for economic and technological growth.

Zeynep Birsel: “IP is not a legal issue – it is a business issue.”

Thaddeus Burns, senior counsel with General Electric and vice chair of the ICC Commission on Intellectual Property moderated the event. One panellist, Zeynep Birsel, director of the technology transfer office at Sabanci University in Turkey, outlined the changing science, technology, industry and intellectual property landscape, and gave examples of how the university had been proactive in responding to the Turkish government’s increasing focus on technology development and commercialization.

“IP is not a legal issue – it is a business issue,” she said. “Companies have to learn to align business and IP strategies. Most small- and medium-sized companies have no idea of the value of their IP assets and how they can protect them.”

Click here to read more on ICC’s website.

Staff Contact: Charlene Flick

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