Family business plays an important role in the economic and social development of most countries in the world, which unfortunately is not always sufficiently visible and recognized. Due to the behavioral and management peculiarities, identified in the multiple international researches, it was found that family businesses represent a specific business model focused mainly on a slow and long-term economic growth strategy. At the same time, the great challenges generated by the rapid changes and evolutions of technological and economic progress impose new standards and requirements on products, services and processes that not all family businesses can cope with.Thus, innovation and intellectual property become important activities that can help family businesses not only survive in these specific conditions, but also become important actors in ensuring sustainable development by increasing the competitiveness of both their own business and the economy of the country of origin. In this article we set out to study the role of innovation and intellectual property as a competitive advantage for family business based on the analysis of the opinions of scientists concerned with this issue and the research of the situation in the Republic of Moldova. We highlighted the importance of these aspects for increasing the competitiveness as a sustaineble stretegy of family businesses and the ways that could apply it. As a result of the analysis, a hypothesis was partially confirmed by which innovation and intellectual property can give family businesses a competitive advantage not only for short periods but also for long periods of time