Abstract
It is inappropriate to evaluate activities for establishment of industrial property rights in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with averaged information about them. Even technology-oriented SMEs are classified into several groups with respect to activities, and their majority is not enthusiastic about securing their rights. This reveals that intellectual properties owned by SMEs have not well been established and protected as industrial property rights. Although risk of technology disclosure and lack of relevant knowledge should be considered to make SMEs negative, recent globalization of business activities urges them to have proper strategies for protection of intellectual property rights, such as selective but increased foreign applications and documentation of know-how. However, neither such intellectual property strategy nor the methodology of the documentation has not been established yet in the management of SMEs. It is the integral part of industry-university cooperation to support the activities for protection of intellectual properties of SMEs through education and academic research.
