Is Intellectual Property an Obstacle for Innovative Start-Ups - Research Paper Example

The paper "Is Intellectual Property an Obstacle for Innovative Start-Ups" is a wonderful example of a research paper on business. This research paper with the help of empirical studies makes an earnest attempt to find that whether patents really help to act as a stimulus for growth, productivity, and profitability of patenting small start-ups or not. Further, with the help of past empirical studies, this research paper tries to find out the hardships and obstacles witnessed by the start-ups around intellectual property rights in technological inventions and how to overcome the same by adopting appropriate measures.

Further, this research also discusses how the patent can be employed as a weapon to prevent the competitors from encroaching on the business of the patented products. 1. Introduction Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are legal rights that can be attained for any property that occurs due to intellectual initiatives of an individual or business or by a group of individuals. IPR can be purchased, disposed of, traded, assigned, and licensed to others by its owner as like any other property. In recent days, there is an increasing significance of intangible assets and intellectual capital and enhanced awareness on the part of businesses and public institutions to safeguard their creative expressions and knowledge assets through copyrights, trademarks, and patents.

To get legal sanctity for one’s intellectual creations, some fundamental legal procedures are to adhere to. Though, the rights for one’s intellectual creation may still belong to the creator or owner, if adequate initiatives for safeguarding one’s intellectual property rights are not followed, then, claiming the rights over such intellectual properties may become more arduous. Hence, obtaining legal protection for one’s creativity, trademarks or innovation is significant if one wants to get the full value for the initiatives taken.

In the contemporary world, intellectual capital is regarded to be the part and parcel of the assets of a business, and it is being valued, evaluated, and even shown in the balance sheets as intangible assets. The intellectual capital of companies emanates from the accretion of technical knowledge, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade names, brand values, trade secrets, etc. Since intellectual property is an intangible asset of a business, the company may use it for obtaining a loan from its bankers, to source funds from venture capitalists, to increase the reputation of the business, and to enhance the network among shareholders, and to build wealth.