67.1% of businesses with zero to four employees use no form of intellectual property protection, a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics report said.
Slightly bigger businesses do not fare much better, with more than 60% of businesses with between five and 19 employees also not using any form of IP protection.
The ABS pinpointed the construction industry as the worst offenders, with a whopping 78.6% of businesses not protecting their IP.
According to IP Australia, these figures are worrying.
“One of the biggest problems is when they get their business name registered and they think they own the right to publicly trade under that”, a spokesperson from IP Australia said.
“But that’s just a formality for governments to identify who that business is. It doesn’t have the same legal status as a registered trade mark.”
“Most businesses think they don’t generate IP but they actually do.”
The IP Australia spokesperson said he was not surprised that construction businesses are the least likely to protect their IP rights, despite the fact they are among the most likely to need it.
“Tradesmen are always inventing things that solve little things. Unless they protect their IP, they’re not going to benefit from that”.
This serves as yet another important reminder of the value of protecting your trade mark and other intellectual property rights.
(article adapted from original report by Michelle Hammond) Back to the top
Slightly bigger businesses do not fare much better, with more than 60% of businesses with between five and 19 employees also not using any form of IP protection.
The ABS pinpointed the construction industry as the worst offenders, with a whopping 78.6% of businesses not protecting their IP.
According to IP Australia, these figures are worrying.
“One of the biggest problems is when they get their business name registered and they think they own the right to publicly trade under that”, a spokesperson from IP Australia said.
“But that’s just a formality for governments to identify who that business is. It doesn’t have the same legal status as a registered trade mark.”
“Most businesses think they don’t generate IP but they actually do.”
The IP Australia spokesperson said he was not surprised that construction businesses are the least likely to protect their IP rights, despite the fact they are among the most likely to need it.
“Tradesmen are always inventing things that solve little things. Unless they protect their IP, they’re not going to benefit from that”.
This serves as yet another important reminder of the value of protecting your trade mark and other intellectual property rights.
(article adapted from original report by Michelle Hammond) Back to the top