Small and medium-sized enterprises, intellectual property, and public policy

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study the use of intellectual property (IP) rights by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper draws on different surveys and studies in selected countries, with an emphasis on Canadian SMEs, to compare the use and exploitation of IP by company size. The paper finds that despite the potential benefits of acquiring formal IP rights for SMEs, they use IP rights to a lesser degree than large companies due to several factors, mainly the low rate of innovation compared to large companies and the cost and complexity of the IP system. The paper also presents a framework to analyze whether there is a role for government to play in this area, and how the government could address this under-utilization of IP rights by SMEs.