Two statistics which I recently heard fascinated me. The first was that there are now more people on the planet with a mobile phone, than have access to running water. The second was that if you take a 2 year old girl and a 97 year old man living in the UK, the 2 year old girl is more likely to live to 100.
While each of these facts are remarkable in themselves, what undeniably links them is innovation. Man has always looked for new and improved ways to do things. However, in today’s world of evolving technology, the pace of technological progress has never been quicker.
Looking back through history, the relentless increase in the pace of innovation is clear to see. It took over 65 years from the Wright brothers first flight in 1903 to Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969. It was less than 25 years from the first website being created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee on 6 August 1991, to there being over 650 million websites in 2013.
The growth of the internet and associated technologies, such as email, has underpinned a massive change not only in corporate culture, but also a whole raft of innovative ‘disruptive technologies’ which touch our everyday lives.
Take the iPad as an example. Since its launch in April 2010, over 200 million units have been sold. Moreover, in that time, 5 successive generations of iPad have been released; not to mention 2 generations of the related iPad mini. We have also see a huge number of entrants into the tablet field and more recently commoditisation, as players such as Tesco launch own branded devices at budget price points. All this activity and commercial success from a device which did not exist in any meaningful way just 4 years ago!
When innovation produces products and services which improve our lives, our adoption of these has never been faster. But with the relentless pace of innovation comes challenges too. One such challenge is how an innovative company can quickly progress an idea to market, while taking adequate time to consider an underlying intellectual property (IP) strategy which will protect a successful product from imitators and copycats. The recent spate of court actions around smart phones underlines the importance and value of IP in innovation. Using IP rights such as patents, trade marks and design registrations can create powerful barriers to entry into a market place. So, while time can be of the essence when it comes to bringing a new product to market, there are some things worth pausing to think about, and IP should be one of those.
Gordon Stark
Murgitroyd & Company
