The MTA, which represents the manufacturing technologies industry, said that millions of pounds in intellectual property rights (IPR) are being neglected because companies do not understand these rights or the IP around their designs and processes.
As well as losing IP to competitors from not registering their marks and rights, manufacturers are also losing out on new revenue streams from licensing out their IP to third parties, and from licensing IP from other parties as an agent to allow them to use IP owned by others, the MTA added.
The stark warning comes in a survey of MTA members and manufacturers across all fields of manufacturing technology, conducted in 2016 by the MTA, Mathys & Squire LLP, and Arvada Marketing.
It found that while nearly all those surveyed had registered basic IP such as a web domain name (94%), just 45% had registered a patent and nearly a quarter (22%) owned registered designs.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of those surveyed had never licensed IP from a third party either, and 67% had not licensed out IP to other parties.
In addition, more than 65% of the group had never made an application to protect their IP outside of the UK, while 81% used non-disclosure agreements and 24% had been involved in a legal dispute involving IPRs.
Says MTA chief executive James Selka: “Manufacturing is a creative industry on par with the software and gaming industries – consider the drawings, machine optimisation, tooling, dies and moulds being constantly created. Companies must be more aware of the value that is integral in these creations, because it represents millions of pounds – and they own it.”
The business group will now set up several IP services to assist engineering companies with exploiting IP fully.
“We are going to give all members and engineering companies that apply, the right tools and advice to capitalise fully on this very lucrative resource, which is being neglected,” Selka adds.
