Patents

A quick search of issued patents on the US Patent and Trademark Office site for patents assigned to "Naim" yielded the rather non-audio sounding titles of:
"Manually operable personal convenience implement "
and
"Method and machine for automatically ironing and stacking men's socks"
There is a person or entity in Italy with the name Nerina Naim that gives me these hits.
A search for inventors named Vereker gave "Timer with resettable alarm and automatic turn-off". Named inventors on this one included a Richard Vereker Durston and not our beloved JV.
So there's the US-centric view of Naim Audio patents. At least ones assigned to the company or it's famous founder. There may be others that don't show Naim as the assignee or ones that they license.
It really depends on the market, product and technology whether it is "worth it" for a small company to get involved in the patent process. Patents in the US don't give you a license to practice, they're a legal tool to keep others from doing exactly what you're doing.
I'm guessing that the technology keeps Naim out of the US patent field, they have improved upon standard circuitry and techniques to give us that great sound. There are likely innovations that are considered a trade secret that are not easily patented. And there are many trade secrets that are purposely not patented so as not to fully disclose what you're up to so the competitors are in the dark.
Search your own country's patent data base and see what you find.
David

I do remember JV saying to me years ago when I met him that he didn't want to go down this road because it would only lead to company’s copying! It was something to do with the funny felty coating of the CD transport they came up with at the time.
Martin