Throughout the history, the growth of the shipbuilding industry has been driven by innovation, which has contributed to world trade and globalization. Nowadays, innovation has increasingly become a major business factor. New solutions are being developed to build greener, safer and more energy efficient ships.
Introducing innovation involves additional investments and risks. To sustain the innovation process, intellectual property (IP) protection is a must because it is a precondition to ensure the reward to the creator and the financial means to create. However, due to the specific characteristics of shipbuilding production logistics and regulatory environment, applying traditional IPR protection tools in the shipbuilding industry is often difficult and costly.
Facing these IP protection challenges, the European shipbuilding industry has decided to build GuardSHIP, a dedicated shipbuilding IP collective management organisation, to “close the ranks” in a joint and proactive battle against knowledge leakage and IPR infringement.
