There are registable intangible assets, such as the company name, trademarks, patents and designs, and not registable intangible assets, such as trade secrets, business ideas, skills or customer records.

Identify and prioritise

Companies that develop and nurture their intangible assets often have higher growth, profitability and development than those who do not. A first step in increasing profitability with the help of your intangible assets is to identify them. What assets do you have and which of them are most important to your business?

Create a strategy

Once you have identified and prioritised your assets, you should develop a strategy and method to manage them. For example, which of them should you register, and which should you handle as a trade secret? A well developed strategy for the management of the company’s intangible assets can:

• Be used to develop the business strategy.
• Accelerate the development of the company by identifying opportunities and shortcomings.
• Make the company more attractive to potential investors and partners.
• Be used in marketing context.
• Deter competitors.

Communicating your intangible assets

Once you have a strategy in place, you can start using and benefiting from your assets. Remember to communicate the assets you want to increase awareness of, both externally to customers and suppliers and internally at the company.

Does your company have unused assets?

Test your company at the Swedish Intellectual Property Office

Learn more about intangible assets

The PRV Online School gives you knowledge about intangible assets and rights, along with interesting examples from the real world. The school takes about two to three hours of self-study.

Go to the Swedish Intellectual Property Office's online school

Create better business with patents

By taking out patents, you can improve your business and give yourself a better market position. 

A patent gives you sole right to commercially utilise an invention, i.e. a technical solution to a problem. This means that you can avoid price competition on markets where you take out a patent. The right can be purchased, sold or licensed. A patent can also make it easier to get interest from investors and facilitate selling your business. A business partner who gains access to patented technology may be prepared to pay more for what you have to offer.

Find out more about why it’s good to apply for patents from PRV

Create better business with trademarks

At a time when the supply of both goods and services is constantly increasing, the trademark becomes an increasingly important part of the company. The trademark is what will symbolise your profile and your reputation.

Create a strong trademark

Want to develop a strong trademark? Then the first step is to protect and register the trademark. This way you prevent others from using the trademark.

Trademark protection gives you exclusive rights, which means that no one else has the right to use your trademark for their goods and services or in their marketing. If this still happens, it is trademark infringement and you can turn to the Patent and Market Court. The court may prohibit further infringement and sentence the violator to fines or imprisonment.

A protected trademark is an important part of your strategic work and can lead to better business. The trademark helps you reach out to everything from customers to business partners and investors.

Your trademark is a financial asset. If you have registered protection, you can sell or license your trademark. Trademark protection can also make it easier to find investors and business partners. A trademark can be worth large amounts, even more than a machine fleet or production facility. A protected trademark can increase the value of your company.

Create better business with your design

A design registration can protect your investments when you develop new products. The registration can be used to secure returns in the following ways:

• Registration gives you an important competitive advantage because you get the exclusive right to use the design. An exclusive right is one of the strongest advantages you can have in a competitive market.
• By informing people that you have a design registration, you create greater respect and distance to the competitors and thereby take a larger market share.
• You increase your company’s value, and make it visible for investors and management.
• You have a good starting point to negotiate the financing of development costs and to conclude sales and licensing agreements with others.

Why it is good to register your design at the Swedish Intellectual Property Office's website

Create better business with your copyrights

A copyright automatically arises when you create a work. The economic rights for the work always arise with the person who created a work, but can be transferred to someone else through a contract. The rights can, for example, be assigned to a publishing house, a photo agency, the company that the originator is employed by or STIM (Svenska tonsättares internationella musikbyrå) and record labels if the work is a piece of music.

The routes you can go if you want to earn money on your copyrighted work are:

• Take care of the whole process yourself. Remember that you can also use the copyright to keep competitors at bay and thus make money.
• Let another player use your work and give you compensation. Then a licensing agreement is often required.
• Sell the right to someone else who, in turn, commercialises your work.

What have others done?

Let yourself be inspired by how others have taken care of their intangible assets and created successful companies.

Inspiring stories at the Swedish Intellectual Property Office