IP Europe hands innovation manifesto to European Commission
IP Europe, an alliance of innovation intensive companies, has launched a manifesto aimed at driving growth for European innovators, in anticipation of potential changes to IP rights enforcement.
The manifesto, which was “developed to help Europe drive growth and create high-value jobs in 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution”, was handed to the European Commission yesterday, June 27.
According to a statement from IP Europe, the IoT space 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.
It called for further incentives, such as tax credits and legal support, to be provided for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in research and development (R&D).
“Europe’s ambition to become the world’s leading digital economy is being held back by the absence of the incentives that small businesses need to compete,” the manifesto stated.
IP Europe launched the manifesto in partnership with investment fund France Brevets, the Fraunhofer Institute (a research organisation) and a group of chief executives of SMEs.
It pinpointed two “emerging threats” to European R&D intensive companies: “patent free-riders” (companies that use SME technologies at very low or no cost, and often unlawfully) and 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”.
Mogens Peter Carl, executive chairman of IP Europe, said: “We have excellent universities and research institutes, and a deep culture of innovation.”
He added: “Europe’s Achilles heel is its inability to commercialise its knowledge and expertise by creating the right service ecosystem for innovative SMEs to thrive.”
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