Bringing an IP perspective to SMEs

There is little doubt that small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) have been a major force of innovation and value creation in the industrial economy and will be expected to continue to be so in the emerging knowledge economy as well. To this end Little Blues delivers on its purpose of informing SMEs of their important role in society and defining the necessary firm culture required for successfully creating intellectual property and capital from their valuable R&D efforts. The authors are correct in acknowledging the lack of literature focused on SMEs and their specific IP management challenges, and thus have created a very useful book that concisely outlines the key issues that SMEs should consider in order to build an IP culture in their organization.

Key to the success of the book's purpose is that Little Blues doesn't try to take on too much, but instead informs management of SMEs of critical issues that are often completely off their radar screen. As the authors point out, very often down-stream business problems are the manifestation of poorly managed up-stream IP issues. Central to their message is the adage that there is great wisdom in "knowing what you don't know" so that you can seek the appropriate advice and make informed decisions in a timely manner. For SMEs this is of crucial importance as they typically do not have the human resources to handle all IP issues themselves and do not have the financial resources to out-source everything they lack.

Thus Little Blues successfully guides the SME in understanding not only the key issues where IP can create value, but also aids in advising which issues can be handled internally and which issues require outside counsel given their time and financial constraints. While paying for help can be expensive, not receiving expert advice on core matters when necessary is likely to be much more costly and possibly disastrous for small firms operating in knowledge intensive industries. It should definitely be apparent to all SME stakeholders that read Little Blues, and rightly so, that IP is not a side business, it is core business.

One of the key premises of the book is that information on the importance of IP management is lacking in SMEs. This important point deserves a follow-up question – why does this continue to persist? One very important reason is the lack of education about IP in university education both in the US and EU and worldwide for that matter. The EU, for example, in the Lisbon Agreement has declared that the goal of Europe is to become the top knowledge economy in the world. This is of course impossible without an expert understanding by engineers, scientists, lawyers, managers, entrepreneurs, etc of how intellectual assets, property, and capital create value for firms, universities, and society. While written from a US perspective, Little Blues is pertinent to a global audience, especially given the scarcity of education on this critical topic at present.

All in all Little Blues delivers on its goal of informing SMEs of the need to build their businesses from an IP perspective. Its succinct and straightforward format is easily read and understood and thus offers little excuse to stakeholders of small firms looking to compete in today's knowledge economy. Those firms that continue to operate without this essential knowledge do so at their own peril.

Little Blues ispublished byManaging Intellectual Property and priced at $100. To order your copy of Little Blues, with a 10% discount ($90, £54, €76.50) email Simon Gates at sgates@euromoneyplc.com, or call the hotline +44207 779 8999 and quote "Americas Focus offer".