Patents, brands and designs weigh on the value of companies, but in Portugal the protection of intellectual property is still very weak. Expert warns of the importance of creative capacity going hand in hand with the defense of national innovation.
The small dispenser that controls the amount of whiskey that comes out of the bottle is a Portuguese patent. But the majority of Portuguese inventions, as well as brands and designs created mainly by small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), are at risk of being copied or appropriated. At issue is the enormous lack of expression of intellectual property (IP), a market that is still very incipient in Portugal.
If the USA started on this path 150 years ago, being the largest (in value) and most mature market in the world, China, which started on this path 40 years ago, already represents half the number of brands and patents globally and is advancing full speed. In addition to being the country that launches the most patents today, it has a 15-year strategic development plan underway that aims to reach 2035 as a global leader in intellectual property. “All of Asia is growing a lot; The big players are Western, but the biggest needs are in Asian countries, which already bring together 60 of the 100 biggest innovators, with emphasis on Japan, which alone represents 36.” The explanation is from Gustavo Lopes da Silva, CFO of RCF, an almost century-old company dedicated precisely to this area. The expert gives more color to the portrait, revealing a deep connection between the economic profile of the countries and their areas with greater protection: “In the USA and China these are mainly electronics patents and brands, in Germany equipment goods (which is understood as the industrial , namely automobiles) and in Portugal pharmaceutical companies dominate.”
But there is a gap in the weight of intellectual property in any of these countries compared to ours: “In Portugal, only 7% of SMEs protect their rights”, whether brands, patents or design. And what can happen without this protection? “A client of ours who did not register the brand and took it to Brazil was forced to give up using it.” The problems appear mainly with companies with a startup profile, which often don’t know that they have to protect themselves or how to do it, that don’t have money and think that they can advance these processes alone and/or further.
Gustavo does not recommend it. “I would advise them to go to an IP specialist right from the start, as soon as they understand that they have something patentable or worthy of protection”, says the head of RCF, who works a lot in digital hubs and startup forums and points out lack of knowledge as a of the biggest factors of lack of protection of what is created on Portuguese soil. And in this he also points the finger at the sector, with the National Intellectual Property Institute (INPI) at the head. “The sector operates in a closed circuit, far from companies; the economy does not understand what IP is and what it can do for the economy, but the operators themselves are old-fashioned, have no strategy and do not encourage the development of intellectual property.”
Read the full article in the edition of NEW which is, this Friday, March 29th, on newsstands
Tags: Portugal SMEs protect intellectual rights
