Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are attributed with bringing great innovation, energy and productivity into traditional and new sectors. Patents help them to foster innovative solutions by encouraging and rewarding investment. But if the full potential of intellectual property (IP) is to be exploited by SMEs, we need a better understanding of how exactly IP can be commercialised by innovative companies, regardless of their size, sector or location.

This article introduces the SME case studies which are the focus of this special issue. It provides an overview of the companies involved, and looks at the main conclusions drawn by the studies on how to address the common challenges of IP strategy and management faced by SMEs. It also gives trainers suggestions on how to integrate the case studies into their training offer.

The phenomena subsumed under the keywords of “fourth industrial revolution” and “Internet of Things” (IoT) is transforming the industrial landscape. With business models in the B2C and B2B segments adapting to these developments, the role of IP—and in particular that of patents—as a competitive instrument is evolving, too. However, especially small and medium-sized companies (SME) often underestimate this role. Academics and practitioners have jointly developed proven methods and tools to effectively protect digital business models by means of IP under these new framework conditions.

Today, patents in Europe provide for national protection on a country-by-country basis. For the future, a Unitary Patent with unitary effect throughout the territory of the participating Member States is under preparation, which will co-exist with today’s system. To enter into force, among others the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) needs to be ratified by 13 EU member states, including France, the United Kingdom and Germany. France and 13 other states have already ratified the UPCA. The ratifications by the United Kingdom and Germany are still outstanding and Brexit as well as a German Constitutional Complaint are currently adding complexity and delaying the start of the new system.

As established players in the industry did not take the start-up Orcan and its new technology seriously, Orcan had to pivot its business model and go the arduous path to develop and install stand-alone products by themselves. Nevertheless, they still had to convince established players to become partners in this process. Due to the asymmetry between a large company and a small start-up, which exists in several dimensions, it was very difficult to have these discussions on the same eye level. That is where Orcan’s solid patent base proofed very helpful.The further developed business model of fully integrating Orcan’s products into installations of large players provides significant benefits for the customer and the co-operation partners, but again it was very difficult to convince the established companies of these synergies. Due to further R&D efforts, Orcan was able to prove the advantages. By securing the additional IPR, they could even further strengthen their sustainable position in the market.

“Aerogen is the first company in the world to develop technologies for high-performance aerosol drug delivery in acute care,” says founder and CEO John Power. The company has established itself as the global market leader in acute care drug delivery for ventilated patients. Strategic partnerships with leading companies in the sector played an important role in the acceptance of Aerogen’s innovative nebuliser technology for application in aerosol drug delivery.

Founded in 1980, Cosmed has become a leader in the fields of industrial design, the development and manufacture of diagnostic equipment, and scientific research in the med-tech industry. With a business model based on direct and network sales, it has established subsidiaries in Germany, France, Switzerland, the U.S., China, and Australia, and has distributors in Russia, Brazil and Korea.

Micrel Medical Devices is a family-owned company founded in Greece in 1980. Its first product, an ambulatory syringe pump, allowed patients suffering from thalassaemia, a rare blood disease that is prevalent among people of Mediterranean descent, to be treated at home instead of in hospital. Following that success, Micrel developed a full range of ambulatory volumetric and syringe infusion pumps for home and hospital care, all with the aim of making the treatment of patients more comfortable.

Marinomed was founded in 2006 by four scientists, three of whom still work for the company. It was spun off from the Veterinary University of Vienna, where it is located to this day. With a staff of 25, the company develops biopharmaceutical products based on natural marine compounds.Focusing on the therapy of respiratory disease, Marinomed markets anti-viral and immunological treatments.

Webdyn is a EUR 4 million revenue company which was created and funded by early investors in 1997, with additional financing by venture capitalists in 2010. Located in Paris and with an export office in India, it currently has 30 employees. Its core business is to help industrial clients—mainly in the smart energy sector—to successfully implement the Internet of Things (IoT) in their operations. Webdyn offers low-consumption hardware and software components through product sales and software licensing, as well as engineering services for their implementation in automation systems. Its products Its products include IP gateways (used to connect wide area networks to local area networks), end points such as ICT concentrators (used to collect local sensor generated data from local area networks, aggregate them and send them through wide area communication networks),

Factus was co-founded in 1999 by Rubén Bonet, its president and CEO, and Carles Puente Baliarda. It originally positioned itself as a products and services company, developing customised antennae for leading smartphone manufacturers (Samsung, LG, Siemens) and network operators (Telefonica). The firm was in consolidation phases until 2002. During this time it was able to raise EUR 20m from first-tier venture capital firms and to expand its workforce to 30 employees. International expansion followed with the opening of an office in Korea in 2003, with annual sales revenues reaching EUR 4m and staff expanding to 70 employees shortly afterwards.

EKSPLA, a Lithuanian SME set up in 1992, started off supplying customised high-performance laser systems to scientific laboratories. It later extended its product range to standardised laser systems for industrial applications. The move to producing standardised lasers made IP more important. EKSPLA now owns twelve patent families. In addition, some of its incremental innovations are kept as trade secrets. EKSPLA participates in EU projects and co-operates on R&D with contract manufacturers. Decisions to file patent applications are taken together with its partners. As its main competitors are based in Europe, EKSPLA looks forward to the Unitary Patent as a means of securing more extensive patent protection in the region.

Orcan Energy is a renewable energy company founded in 2008 by three researchers—Richard Aumann, Andreas Sichert and Andreas Schuster—as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Today the company has 65 employees (2013: 35). Despite its international business reach, the company is still based in Munich, where it is firmly rooted by its research co-operation activities.The company emerged from a government-supported programme for university-based business start-ups. A research group was given the task of building a compact and costefficient ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) system for waste heat recovery from combustion engines.

Skeleton offers one of the first commercialised technologies to use graphene, a ground-breaking and Nobel prize-winning material. This Estonian company develops, manufactures and sells ultracapacitor energy storage cells, modules and systems based on patented advanced materials and designs. Its IP portfolio has been created to protect the company’s technology along the whole value chain, including development, production and sales. The IP and business strategies evolved simultaneously, starting with a platform built on protection for the core graphene-centric technology and a focus on protecting inventions with the best business potential first. Employees at Skeleton are cross-trained so that everyone is aware of and has competencies in the company’s IP strategy and is familiar with how it relates to the R & D strategy.

Voltea offers products, software for data/system control, services for online data tracking and integrated solutions for softening and deionising water. Most water impurities are in the form of dissolved salt that can be removed by deionisation. The process, which can be done quickly and inexpensively using electro-deionisation, produces high-purity water.

Lithoz is an additive manufacturing company that has developed patentable methods and formulas for fabricating high-performance ceramic products with industrial applications that could not have been realised using traditional technologies. It has created 3D printers, a variety of new ceramic materials and dedicated software for printing production. Before the development of the lithography-based ceramic manufacturing (LCM) process, the density and strength of 3D-printed ceramics were not sufficient to meet the standards of the ceramic industry. With its technology and materials, Lithoz now achieves a high level in the material properties of density and strength, and its quality and precision are such that the process can be used for serial production.

A traditional construction and renovation contractor, the Finnish company Picote discovered and filled a niche when it developed a proprietary method of repairing smaller interior pipes without drilling or digging. With 15 years of business expertise, it designed and developed materials, tools and methods to adapt an existing lining technique originally used for large infrastructure pipes to fit smaller diameter pipes used in buildings. Patents have played a major role in supporting the adoption of this new, innovation-based business model. Picote recognised that IP rights were the most effective means of protection for its easy-to-copy mechanical solutions. Because it is expanding throughout Europe, it is considering using the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court to avoid parallel litigation.