Benchmarking National - PRO INNO Europe

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98 BENCHMARKING NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMES IN THE FIELD OF INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY Australia: “Smart Start” awareness raising programme as a showcase for programme branding Smart Start is an IP awareness raising programme operated by IP Australia, the Australian patent office. It is special in several aspects: First, it introduces the concept of IP usage and protection particularly to people who want to start their own business or who want to acquire an already existing company. It follows the rationale that when new ideas arise for creating a start-up or buying stakes in other companies, the issue of IP protection has to be dealt with especially. Second, the programme tries to give hands-on information to IPR beginners regarding a wide range of IP protection possibilities – not the least with regard to informal protection mechanisms. In this context, it is interesting to note that IP Australia distributes a Windows application called “Confidentiality Agreement Generator” and places it prominently on its website, along with business plan templates. Smart Start activities comprise the execution of half-day workshops on IPR and IP protection (70 such events were held between May 2005 and June 2006, which were attended by around 5,200 people in total); the service publishes IP-related brochures (circulation volume: 22,000 p.a.) and maintains its own website. Thus, the take-up seems to be very high. This website acts also as an entry point for other actors in the IPR service field (i.e., patent attorneys). A big success factor is seen in branding activities, which are said to have led to a relatively high recognition and reputation of the service with Australian SMEs. � An interesting combination of offering expert know-how for free and an awareness raising activity can be seen in the Canadian Bank of Speakers initiative. While it looks very similar to many of the “open days” services offered by European institutions in conjunction with patent attorneys, the marketing efforts (with a central entry point for interested parties and thus probably higher out-reach to more potential target groups) set this type of service apart: Canada: Bank of Speakers initiative – Combining free expert advice with awareness raising and with a central entry point The Bank of Speakers (BoS) targets SMEs and other clients with very little or no knowledge of IP. It is designed to raise awareness and introduce the strategic value of IP. The objective of the initiative is to have a pool of trained speakers on IP available across Canada for engagement with organisations serving SMEs (e.g. business associations) and for participation at specialized tradeshows. CIPO (Canadian Institute for Intellectual Property) promotes and coordinates the Bank of Speakers initiative. This initiative is a collaborative effort between CIPO and the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC). IPIC is the primary professional association of patent and trade-mark agents in Canada. Speakers are IP practitioners and members of IPIC, who volunteer their time to deliver a basic IP Awareness presentation. Event organisers request a speaker for their event via a CIPO on-line form or by contacting their client service centre. Presentations are being made across Canada. CIPO Business Development Officers also present on occasion, when an IPIC speaker is not available. To date, the initiative is aimed at raising awareness of IP by introducing basic concepts such as the importance and strategic use of IP; an introduction to trade secrets, patents, trade-marks, copyrights and industrial designs; useful resources and tips; links to IP publications and on-line tools; and contact information.
� As with regard to services offered outside of patent offices, considerable efforts are placed on IPR service elements offered within the scope of technology transfer programmes at universities or state-run laboratories and/or thematic support programmes e.g. in the bio-tech area. � Interestingly, it seems that services, where volunteers provide advice and counselling for free, are more prominent in the US or Canada than in Europe. According to experts, this seemingly higher popularity of a “business angel”like approach – however, limited in scope to IPR counselling only – may have cultural roots: involvement of retired executives and experts is said to be valued highly in the US and Canadian society. It would be certainly interesting to examine if programmes such as the SCORE service would be also a viable option in Europe. USA: The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) programme – a service which involves volunteering experts in IPR service provision SCORE is a source of free and confidential business advice to help build small businesses from idea, to start-up and, eventually, to commercial success. SCORE uses more than 10,500 volunteers drawn from working and retired business owners, executives, and corporate leaders in 389 chapters located across the U.S. to assist small businesses with all aspects of business counselling and training, including intellectual property issues, without charge. An active online counselling initiative allows small businesses to search for a counsellor in a given specialty, such as protecting IP. While only a few registered volunteers (42) are declared IPR experts, other business experts may be able to identify in the course of their counselling IP-related subjects and refer the SMEs for more specialized help. More than 5,000 business workshops and seminars are offered each year on a free or low cost basis (on all subjects). In 2005 SCORE provided on the order of half a million services through face-to-face, phone and online counselling sessions, workshops and seminars. More than seven million entrepreneurs have received counselling from SCORE since it was started. The SCORE Association received the prestigious Summit Award from the American Society of Association Executives in 2004 for its outstanding small business counselling programme. Overall, innovative elements which can be seen in services overseas and which are worth considering for implementation in Europe relate (i) to offerings which draw on volunteering IPR experts and act as intermediaries between these experts and support-seeking SMEs. The advantage of implementing such a scheme would be to activate know-how at relatively low costs. Furthermore, it seems that (ii) the marketing and branding activities of awareness raising measures have to be noted and could serve as role models for many services in Europe. 5.6.2 The case of Japan: Towards an IP culture As with the case of Japan, it is the magnitude of the efforts along different policy fields that catches the eye and creates a favourable environment for IPR usage with SMEs, a so-called IP Culture. The outcome of such a broad approach is worthwhile to examine, which is why the Japanese case is given particular attention in the following. 99 TOWARDS GOOD PRACTICES – THE REAL WORLD OF IPR SUPPORT SERVICES
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PRO INNO Europe paper N° 4 BENCHMA
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PRO INNO Europe The innovation poli
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Contents Executive Summary 9 1 Intr
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4. Case Study: Innovation by patent
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Executive Summary Background 1. The
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under all circumstances), but rathe
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overall policy level, which primari
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the fact that the business perspect
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and evaluation). Hence, there is a
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20 BENCHMARKING NATIONAL AND REGION
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3 SMEs in the IPR world 3.1 SMEs an
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amount of time (mostly up to 20 yea
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In contrast to arrangements for pat
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3.3 Usage Patterns of IP protection
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industries of the ICT sector. These
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In a study conducted by Kingston (K
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Care must be taken that statements
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The first step to ensure that IP ma
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The patent troll as an SME-affine e
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Page 117: ANNEX I - CASE STUDIES The case stu
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Table 10 Overview of public availab
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Nr. B* Country Title of the Service
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European Commission Benchmarking na
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ISBN 978-92-79-06926-0 NB-AX-07-004
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Benchmarking National - PRO INNO Europe

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