Businesses need to do more to protect their intellectual property, urged Matthew Hogg, intellectual property specialist at Kiln.
In an address to delegates at an intellectual property conference organised by Kiln and AIRMIC, the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers, Hogg said global expenditure on research and development currently runs at more than £200bn annually.
But Hogg said only 22% of companies have developed risk management strategies to protect their investment.
"Consideration of threats to intangible assets like intellectual property is often not integral to the function of the risk manager, and all too little attention is given to these risks," said Hogg.
He said changes to accounting standards and the current financial and political climate were other reasons to protect intellectual property assets.
"With the increasing focus on corporate governance, we can expect that there will be greater accountability to shareholders for the protection of all assets belonging to a company - including the intangibles - going forward," concluded Hogg.
