Innovators transfer their most valuable assets to UK

We were impressed by the UK Government’s commitment to entrepreneurship and the technology sector.

Dr Jeong Hyun Lee
Founder
iCurie Lab

In a world where the ability to innovate is increasingly determining business success, a company’s ideas and designs – its intellectual property (IP) are fast becoming its most valuable assets.

IP has become so important to business that The Economist magazine estimates as much as 75 per cent of the value of publicly-traded companies in the USA is derived from intangible assets.

Unless innovative businesses can properly protect and enforce their IP rights, they become susceptible to piracy, infringement and theft.

So in a world economy, where capital can be moved across borders with relative ease, clever operators are beginning to realise that where an idea is based can often be as important as the idea itself.

A safe choice for innovators

To properly protect IP, firms need a system that is founded on political and economic stability.

The UK, with its long history of pragmatic enforcement of IP rights, is appearing attractive to many overseas firms.

Its system of IP protection includes copyright and industrial design rights, as well as specific industry protection for software and biotechnology.

Further, the system is well policed.

In August 2004, the National Intellectual Property Crime Strategy (NIPCS) was launched to tackle IP crime.

Global protection

The knowledge that its IP rights would be safe was at the forefront of OM Energy’s thinking when it recently moved to the UK.

The company, founded by Russian scientists, had developed a technology to extract hydrogen from water.

Once extracted, the hydrogen can be mixed with petrol to make cost-effective and environmentally-friendly fuel.

If commercially successful, the technology could be used to fuel cars using tap water and assist ships to power themselves using seawater.

Although OM Energy developed its patent and core technology in Russia, it decided to move to the UK as a strategically-viable location to globally protect its IP and expand its business.

It is now poised to assemble version four of its prototype in the UK.

Financial benefits of change

Security is not the only reason companies are basing their IP in the UK.

The UK is the largest source of venture capital (VC) in Europe and accounts for some 40 per cent of the European VC market.

The UK Government also provides tax credits for research and development, and offers numerous partnerships between universities, government and business.

Commitment to technology

A combination of these factors helped nano-scale cooling technology business iCurie Lab Holdings make the decision to choose the UK as the base for its IP.

“We looked at various locations including Switzerland, Ireland and the US West Coast,” says iCurie chief executive Dr Jeong Hyun Lee.

“But through working with UK Trade & Investment we were impressed by the UK Government’s commitment to entrepreneurship and the technology sector.”

Since setting up operations in the UK, the company’s iCurie Cooled™ nanotechnology cooling system has passed performance testing and received certification.

iCurie wants its technology to become the new standard in cooling for the electronics industry worldwide.

By making an educated decision about its IP, it might well be on its way.