Benchmarking National - PRO INNO Europe

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BENCHMARKING NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMES IN THE FIELD OF INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY
is also due to recent global economic developments requiring a stronger use
of formal IP protection mechanisms. SMEs face special disadvantages in this
respect as they are often neither familiar with the patent system nor do they
possess the necessary experience in database research. This makes training
offered to SMEs more relevant.
� Organisation of the “IPR Day” (a conference with IPR speeches; every second
year an inventor’s prize is awarded by the state of Baden-Württemberg).
� On its website, the PIC Stuttgart makes available an extensive collection of
FAQs and the corresponding answers with regard to various IPRs and the
services of the patent information office itself.
� Furthermore, papers by experienced patent attorneys on various aspects of
IPRs are available for download on PIC Stuttgart's website together with
literature recommendations and a list of relevant laws and regulations, official
documents and brochures etc.
� Other services, like the organisation of information events, holding lectures at
universities, teaching students (one day course; one beginner, one advanced
course) the provision of brochures, information material etc., created by the
German PO, copying services and a telephone hotline.
The German Patent Information Centres are working in close relationship with the
German PO. Based on a contract, the German PO passes on patent documents on
paper and on CD-ROM to all PICs and provides advanced Internet services (i.e. the
DEPATISnet-Premium tool) exclusively for all German PICs. Furthermore, the PO
offers free training courses for the PIC staff. In mid 2006, the co-operation between
the PO and all German PICs was strengthened through an agreement, specifying
the tasks that the PICs take over on behalf of the PO (mainly: regional provision of
information on IPRs and creating awareness for the importance of IPRs). In return,
the Patent Information Centres are supported by the DPMA by way of joint
marketing activities, brochures, trainings etc.
After a modification of the patent law in 2001, 11 out of 24 Patent Information
Centres have used the opportunity to accept patent and utility model applications
and forward them to the German PO. Since October 2004, these 11 PICs are
entitled to accept applications for trade marks and industrial designs as well.
However, the latter service element is not in high demand due to a number of
reasons: First, the introduction of the service was not accompanied by a PR
campaign similar in scope to the campaign launched in 2001 for patent
applications. Second, the documentation required for a patent application is much
more voluminous than that needed for a trade mark application. Thus, the costs of
packing and postage are higher. SMEs and patent attorneys can save/reduce more
of these costs by filing the patent application with the regional PIC than they could
in the case of trade marks.
An interesting element of good practice is PIC Stuttgart's information and training
activities in co-operation with technical universities and colleges. Their aim is to
make future technical engineers and thus future (potential) inventors aware of the
IPR system and to provide them with IPR-research skills. Professors and their student
groups visit the PIC Stuttgart listen to information speeches on IPRs and are assisted
in carrying out IPR-researches on their own. Later on in their university career,
students can use these skills for their practice-oriented seminar papers or their
diploma theses. After entering (self-) employment, university graduates are
assumed to transfer and introduce their IPR-related knowledge and skills for the
benefit of their employers or their own companies. For already more than ten years
the PIC Stuttgart carries out these awareness-raising activities among technical
universities and colleges and one can assume that they have already developed a
broad effect in the meantime. In 2005 alone, 24 student groups from technical
universities or colleges with 431 participants were informed and trained by the PIC
Stuttgart.