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Action items from UK IP & Banking report
Last November I posted an item on the UK Intellectual Property Office’s report on Banking on IP? The role of intellectual property and intangible assets in facilitating business finance. A follow up report is now available Banking on IP: An Active Response. This new report outlines a number of specific steps to be taken to increase the use of intangibles in financing decisions.
In 2014/15 the IPO will therefore focus attention on improving the ability of IP rich businesses to secure access to growth finance – by building understanding of IP in the business and the financial services communities, by enabling a more productive dialogue between businesses and lenders, and by building greater confidence in the value of IP assets as collateral. In particular it will:
• Actively promote improved understanding of IP and its value to business to SMEs and lenders through its IP for Business tools;
• Develop a series of real life case studies which show how a business has, through management of their IP, been able to secure finance, attract new business or increase their profitability;
• Work in partnership with the BBA and its Business Finance Roundtable to promote understanding of IP across the financial services sector, including frontline business managers;
• Lead development of an IP Finance toolkit, in collaboration with business and the financial services community, including templates and guidance on identifying and managing IP assets;
• Encourage dialogue between insurers and lenders with a view to developing appropriate insurance policies;
• Undertake an assessment of existing IP trading platforms;• Reach out to operators of existing risk sharing schemes to see how IP can be taken into account in credit scoring in ways which are likely to reduce risk overall.
One of the more important task will be to begin to standardize the process of looking at IP.
The first step will be to develop common terminology, so that lenders and businesses can talk the same language. The finance and IP worlds are both full of terms not readily understood by the lay person and which can be misused or confused. As a first step to developing a common understanding the IPO, working with businesses and the finance community, will develop a glossary of accepted definitions to be used when describing and valuing IP and intangible assets.
This common language will form a foundation on which we will develop templates and guidance which will help business accurately to document their IP assets in a way that supports the decision making of a potential lender. We recognise that most lenders already use standard templates or application forms for client businesses seeking finance. We will therefore seek to produce templates for IP related assets that can either be directly incorporated into this existing documentation or which can be used as a databank for information likely to be required by lenders.
While the UK IPO is looking at a number of other activities, this standardization of information may be the best beginning. It is also something that U.S. officials need to keep an eye on. If a set of templates can be developed for identifying and incorporating IP assets into existing lending documents, then I see no reason why those templates can’t be used on both sides of the “the Pond.” That would be a huge step forward.
Source: http://www.athenaalliance.org/weblog/archives/2014/05/action-items-from-uk-ip-banking-report.html
