A manifesto for innovation
Tax credits and better access to justice are just two proposals aimed at seeking more support for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe.
The aims are part of a drive to boost the European economy and create high-value jobs, particularly in the areas of 5G and the ‘internet of things’ (IoT).
In June, a group called IP Europe—a collection of R&D-intensive companies—delivered a manifesto containing the proposals to the European Commission. The group wants to help Europe “realise its ambitions to become the world’s leading digital economy”.
Several household names, including Nokia, Airbus and Ericsson, are members, but other less familiar names are present too. Size is unimportant, however, as the members all share a common goal: “to maintain, at all policy levels, strong patent protection for innovators and support recognised fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory standardisation policies adopted by consensus that preserve fair compensation for innovators.”
The IoT space, one of the group’s main focuses, represents “a massive opportunity for European businesses”, with 75.4 billion connected devices expected to generate annual economic benefits of $11 trillion globally by 2025.
Within the manifesto’s “ensuring fair access to justice” section are desires for IP rights to be strongly protected and for pro-SME measures, including easier access to courts and lower fees, to be made available in all jurisdictions.
The manifesto also pinpoints two “emerging threats” to European R&D-intensive companies, the first being “patent free-riders”, which are companies that use SME technologies at very low or no cost, and often unlawfully. The second is the “systemic threat from a small group of Silicon Valley companies” that want to replace the international system of open standards development with one based on proprietary technologies and platforms.
The importance of SMEs
Ruben Bonet, CEO and co-founder of Fractus, a technology company signed up to IP Europe, tells WIPR that it’s crucial for policymakers to develop a better understanding of the practical challenges facing innovative SMEs and to fully appreciate the importance of these SMEs to the broader R&D framework.
“We have already organised a workshop with relevant EU officials during which a number of SMEs were able to share their practical experiences of the challenging environment for innovators in the EU, and we hope this process of policymaker dialogue and education will continue.
“We will also continue to engage with policymakers around the specific measures contained within the manifesto to try to ensure that they are integrated into any new policy measures and instruments,” he adds.
If approved in their current form, the proposals would also see SMEs receive help for qualifying for EU funding and loans, while “meaningful financial incentives focused on R&D have to be available for smaller entities and must provide an equivalent tax break for every euro invested in R&D”.
Bonet says he is “very confident” about the benefits the measures will deliver in terms of the competitiveness of Europe’s innovative SMEs, “but we are less certain about how quickly these measures will be taken on board at EU and member state level”.
