Protect your intangible assets

Global accountants and Intellectual Property Office produce guide

Accountants and finance professionals must understand Intellectual Property (IP) issues to help their business clients, says ACCA and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) today in a new guide produced jointly by the two organisations.

Called "Intellectual Property and the Practising Accountant", the report is a guide for finance professionals to help them get to grips with the nuances of IP, from trade marks to patents. It also includes a quiz at the end of the report, so readers can test their understanding of the issues.

The report says that for most businesses, intangible assets represent well over half of corporate value. Yet according to IPO research, over 96% SMEs have never tried to assess what their IP is worth.

Robin Webb, Innovation Director at the Intellectual Property Office says: "Intellectual property is often a hidden or under exploited asset, as many companies struggle to identify, manage and protect it. I believe that accountants who have a basic familiarity with IP will advantage both themselves and their clients by reading this report."

"For many accountants, the ability to recognise that a firm should think about its IP management and signpost the IPO website as a resource to start at, will itself be a useful service."

John Davies, head of business law at ACCA, says: "Businesses survive by being good at what they do, and doing those things in original ways. But success inevitably leads to imitation, and at some point most small firms will need to take steps to safeguard their intellectual property. As accountants are the most frequently used source of business advice for small firms, they are uniquely placed to help their clients protect and exploit their intangible assets."

"As well as giving firms an edge over their competitors, protecting IP can also prove an additional source of revenue - for example, leasing a name or a logo to another organisation", adds John Davies. "And businesses should be aware that they are entitled to take legal action if another corporate body adopts the same, or a misleadingly similar name."

For firms, factoring IP into their business plan means understanding complex issues. For example, are UK trademarks valid in Europe? If a website is designed by a contractor, who owns the copyright? Neither is there any hard and fast way of quantifying IP; should it be the set-up cost of intangible assets, their market value, or their future worth which is costed?

"SMEs will likely have all sorts of questions," concludes IPO’s Robin Webb.

"To gauge the full value of their IP and protect it accordingly, it is critical that their most trusted advisers are well-equipped to answer these queries."

Notes to editors

• ACCA is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management. We have 393,000 students and 137, 200 members in 170 countries worldwide.
• The Intellectual Property Office is within the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills (BIS) and is responsible for the national framework of Intellectual Property rights, comprising patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.
• Its role is to help manage an IP system that encourages innovation and creativity, balances the needs of consumers and users, promotes strong and competitive markets and is the foundation of the knowledge based economy.
• It operates in a national and an international environment and its work is governed by national and international law, including various international treaties relating to IP to which the United Kingdom is a party.
• For further information on this press release from ACCA, please contact: Helen Thompson, ACCA Newsroom: +44 (0)20 7059 5759 or +44 (0)7725 498654
• For enquiries regarding this press release and the Intellectual Property Office, please contact Matthew Navarra on + 44 (0)1633 818313