Standard Life signs-up to new IP league table

Standard Life group’s intellectual property holding arm, Standard Life Employee Services Limited, has been confirmed as the latest entrant to a new innovative league table, by Metis Partners, which compiles the standings.

The entry came just in time for the league table’s first IP 100 Club event which was held at the CitizenM Hotel in Renfrew Street, Glasgow at the weekend, with others to follow around the UK each month hereafter.

Backed with sponsorship by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, the IP league table will be compiled by Metis Partners in association with the publishing division of a UK wide independent business services group, BE Group.

It will be released twice a year in special reports – first in Scotland this autumn, followed by another for the rest of the UK to be published in early 2016.

The IP league table will identify businesses which have invested significantly in intellectual property, in the form of IP creation, IP management policies, R&D activities and IP commercialisation.

Metis Partners, an award-winning IP solutions business, will collate IP-specific data linked to five main IP asset classes including brands, software, patents, trade secrets and critical databases. From this the IP100 team will calculate an IP score for each business and rank the company based on the results.

Stephen Robertson, MD of Metis Partners, said: “We are thrilled to have Standard Life recognise the importance and prominence of the IP League Table and the significant benefits it will have even for such a well-established and highly regarded business like theirs”.”

As well as being sponsors of the table, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks believe the opportunities to work with the high-growth IP-rich companies featured in the IP100 league table is an illustration of the focus the banks are bringing to the SME sector.

David Hayers, head of growth finance at Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks said: “We are proud to sponsor this new league table. It will give much needed recognition to a wide range of companies which have already started to commercialise their intellectual property.

“IP-rich businesses are key growth drivers of the UK economy and yet have often found it challenging to secure debt finance to accelerate their growth plans. This partnership reinforces the banks’ commitment to this critical sector of the economy and is just one example of the innovative approach which we are taking to funding SMEs in the UK.”