Increased profits from intellectual property capture

In April 2021, then State Secretary Mona Keijzer (Economic Affairs and Climate) launched the campaign "Intellectual property: the crowning glory of your work" on behalf of various governments. With this campaign, business owners is made aware of growth opportunities by capturing their intellectual property.

Reason for the campaign is that recent European research has shown that less than 5% of Dutch business owners have their trademark, design, model, patent or breeders' rights (in other words: intellectual property rights) registered, and that is a missed opportunity. Significant increases in turnover can be achieved by properly recording and, where necessary, registering intellectual property. In fact, the same research shows that registering intellectual property can lead to a 68% increase in turnover for SMEs and up to 18% for large companies. Especially for SMEs, a solid intellectual property strategy offers enormous opportunities.

Importance of intellectual property

By making strategic use of the possibilities that intellectual property law offers you, you can build on, for example, the prominence of your name or brand in the market, while safeguarding the interests of your company. Your company can grow while being resilient to possible competition both in the Netherlands and abroad. The aforementioned research shows that companies with a healthy intellectual property portfolio perform better than those that do not register their intellectual property. For example, it shows that:

• companies with intellectual property rights generate 20% more revenue per employee; and
• holders of trademark registrations generate 56% more turnover per employee. If trademark registrations are combined with patents, this leads to nearly 60% more revenue per employee.

Valerie Lipman and Joost van Dongen are both specialists in intellectual property law and advise many business owners in this area. They also regularly assist business owners when intellectual property rights are infringed or their interests need to be represented in court. With only 9% of SMEs surveyed having registered intellectual property rights, there is still quite some catching up to do. It is therefore important to check whether you have taken advantage of all the opportunities offered by intellectual property law within your company.

Do you have questions about protecting your company's intellectual property rights? If so, please contact Valerie Lipman or Joost van Dongen.

This page was last updated on August 8, 2023.