IP Europe co-hosted an informal webinar on World IP Day on 26 April 2021 featuring innovative SMEs from the telecommunications, wireless charging technology, and IOT sectors.  The event was organised to raise awareness about the challenges faced and opportunities seized by innovative SMEs in Europe.

Innovative SMEs are engines of growth and job creation in Europe, across sectors.  Their capacity to secure and enforce intellectual property rights directly affects their ability to secure financing, work with partners, and contest new markets.  Several European initiatives to support innovative European SMEs – including the IP Action Plan, and the InvestEU Program – will be executed in the coming years.  

The question as to how such policies can best be targeted to support innovative SMEs was put on the table by MEP Alex Agius Saliba, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, who co-hosted the event. 

Joining MEP Saliba were Mr. Wawrzyniec Perschke, Policy Officer – Industrial Policy (IPR), DG GROW, European Commission, Mr. Ruben Bonet, Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fractus, Ms. Catalina Olivos, Legal and IP Director, energysquare and Mr. Håkan Dackefjord, CCO and Founder, Wittra Sweden AB.

Key themes emerged from the discussion including: 

• IP protection is critical for European SMEs to innovate, secure funding, grow,
  and compete. 
• IP enforcement is a necessary complement to IP protection. 
• Concerted engagement to support European SMEs will be critically important, and the IP Action Plan is a solid foundation. 
• To compete, innovative European SMEs need a level playing field globally. 
• Open technology standards create opportunities for SMEs to participate in IoT ecosystems. 

For a selection of the speakers’ remarks, please click here (written format) or here (video cilps).