Registering your intellectual property (IP) is a critical step in safeguarding your rights, ensuring legal protection, and maximizing the commercial potential of your intellectual assets. Not registering your IPRs can lead to several significant consequences. These vary depending on the type of IP involved—such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets—but generally include the following:

• inability to easily attribute rights’ ownership and retain exclusive rights to use, produce, and sell relevant aspects of SMEs offering;
• risk of losing SMEs rights to competitor or any third-party;
• inability to use those rights to leverage commercial relationships;
• reduced SME’s valuation, affecting investment opportunities, mergers, and acquisitions;
• weak legal and business position to enforce and defend SMEs business interest;
• inability to prevent others from infringing on your IP;
• reputational Damage.