SMEs and intellectual property assets

This book is about how to acquire, exploit and protect intellectual property assets. Small and medium-sized enterprises in general, and those in the West African region in particular, have very few means of ensuring good management of their intellectual property assets. The aim of this book is to provide them with a simple guide for a non-lawyer to understand the steps and formalities to be completed at all stages: creation of assets, acquisition of titles establishing ownership over the assets, their exploitation, marketing and defence. This guide will enable the reader to understand the specificities of the various intellectual property assets and the possible exploitations. SMEs operate in an environment over which they do not have complete control. As a result, certain actions are the responsibility of governments, which must play their part. The book provides avenues that governments can exploit or explore in order to create an environment in which the owners of intellectual property assets can enforce their rights.