PwC flags up growing importance of IP

Market watcher reveals that 85 per cent of technology executives think IP will increase in importance

The growing importance of intellectual property (IP) to technology firms has been highlighted in a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

According to PwC’s research, 85 per cent of technology executives said that IP would increase in importance for their business over the next three to five years.

The report also indicated that IP will increasingly figure in technology firms’ reporting strategies: although company valuations have traditionally been determined by capital assets, 35 per cent of executives questioned said they will add IP-related information to their reporting in the next three to five years.

PwC said more technology firms are also beginning to formally protect revenue streams from IP.

Melanie Butler, European licensing management leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP told CRN: “A lot of companies are still signing licensing deals but are basing the relationship on trust because they don’t have a formal compliance programme.

“But now people are really beginning to pay attention. What we’re seeing now is they are looking at those revenue streams as the currency of tomorrow.”

Butler said that PwC had identified misreported royalties in 90 per cent of the royalty examinations it has performed in the last five years. The majority had under-reported revenue, she added.

PwC attributed the heightened prominence of IP to the current break-neck pace of innovation and discovery in the technology market.