New research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) suggests that small firms are finding it hard to protect the ideas and branding at the heart of their businesses.
A quarter of the businesses surveyed by the FSB with intellectual property rights suffered some sort of violation or wrongdoing within the past five years.
Almost one in three small businesses (30%) own some form of intellectual property rights that they rely on for between 75% and 100% of their revenue. Infringements of these rights can be incredibly damaging to small businesses, says the FSB.
One in three (32%) firms with intellectual property rights said they had spent money on securing rights within the last five years, with 22% of those investing more than £5,000.
Even with this security, intellectual property is still regularly stolen. The most common forms of theft are through the copying of a product (50%), use of copyrighted work on a website (34%), use of copyrighted work in a service or product for sale (33%), and use of trademark (31%).
FSB members polled also said it is difficult to take advantage of the new tools and services from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). These include the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court's small claims track, the IPO's mediation service and the intellectual property finance toolkit.
These are "positive reforms" said the FSB, but its research found that 29% of those firms who had their intellectual property stolen took no action against perpetrators; 43% said they used direct contact with the infringer to address the issue.
The FSB is calling for simplification and improvements in signposting to encourage take-up of the IPO resources.
John Allan, FSB national chairman, said: "The knowledge economy, which runs on innovative ideas and brands, is becoming ever more critical to our economic success. Left unchecked, theft and infringement of ideas, patents and brand costs small businesses and diminishes their appetite to invest in their business."