Kleinunternehmen und der Schutz von Innovationen – benachteiligt oder einfach anders?

On average SMEs utilize intellectual property rights (IPRs) to a much lesser extent than large enterprises do. As a common explanation it is argued, that this is due to disadvantages associated with their smaller company size. Against this background several policy actions to support SMEs in using the IPR-System are in charge. Nevertheless, this paper asks if the effects of firm size are really the only driving force on IPR-usage in SMEs. Especially the appropriability of innovations in small enterprises seems to be based on special features, which also have an influence on the magnitude of IPR-usage. It is shown that these findings may have important implications for future research on this topic, which is of relevance for policies to support the appropriability conditions in SMEs