Motorsport teams need patents to stay ahead

The article below contains some relevant business updates.

Cutting-edge motorsport technology has played a pivotal role in improving the safety and performance of vehicles, so it can seem odd that, when manufacturers are so eager to get their hands on the latest technologies and benefit from the efforts of F1 teams, there is so little patent activity in the sport.

Teams must adapt quickly to changes in technology, so there is rarely much time to register intellectual property rights. The often lengthy process is a poor match for the industry’s fast pace, especially as technology could become virtually obsolete by the time a patent reaches grant. To make matters worse, other racing teams often get the final say on whether new technologies should be permitted on the grounds that they could provide an unfair advantage — the recent case of

Renault v Racing Point
being a prime example.

F1’s regulatory environment dictates that most attempts to patent and protect innovations are fundamentally futile, though this does not deter some teams from trying. A reliance on trade secrets — protecting sensitive information to maintain a short period of competitive advantage before rivals can catch up — has become a tenet of the sport for many teams. While this can certainly be effective on the track, it is of little value to constructors looking to make commercial gain from the technology away from the sport; the only solution to
keeping innovations safe is to get them patented.

More and more F1 teams are stretching their intellectual property strategies beyond racing to achieve longer term value, largely through diversification into the automotive sector. The competitiveness between automotive manufacturers and suppliers means protection and enforcement has never been more crucial, nor more integral to industry advancement. Much time and money goes into designing a vehicle, so the investment and any competitive edge it would bring is effectively lost if it is allowed to be replicated.

Patents are incredibly powerful when wielded by manufacturers because they prevent others from taking those same innovations for their own gain. Innovation is a cornerstone of both motorsport and the automotive industry and becomes increasingly important as more companies begin to understand the power of intellectual property.

It is time for motorsport teams and their engineers to start taking their rights seriously if they hope to maintain and grow their market share or prevent themselves from being overtaken by the competition.