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
to be an important obstacle, too: the lack of accessibility (for 9 % of high and 34 %
of medium relevance), the lack of information (high relevance for 6, medium for
31 %) and the lack of quality of available external support services (for 3 % of high
and 26 % of medium relevance).
User out-reach and satisfaction levels
Users stated that they received information regarding PIC Stuttgart mostly through
the service providing organisation itself; 46 % found information on the internet,
43 % heard about the service on information days, conferences or similar. Personal
recommendations were primary sources for around 30 %; other sources mainly
referred to information received from patent attorneys and the German PO.
Overall speaking, the surveyed users were highly satisfied with the services offered
by PIC Stuttgart. All the different aspects of service provision are rated with “1.5”
or better (on a scale from 1= very satisfied to 4= unsatisfied); the highest grade was
received for the competence of staff (“1.1”; see Graph 43). In addition, almost all
users (97 %) rate the extent of the service offerings to be adequate. Spatial distance
seems not to be a problem (for 56 % a very low-level barrier and for another 41 %
a factor considered to be acceptable). 58 % think that the benefits of using this
service clearly outweigh the efforts; 36 % state that the benefits are adequate to
the efforts of using this service.
Graph 41 PIC Stuttgart–IP protection methods employed by service users,
2003 to 2005, percentage of respondents
%
100
80
60
40
20
0
74 74 77
Patents filed
Patents valid
and/or granted
Design patterns
and/or utility
models
60
Trademarks
*) multiple answers allowed. Source: User Survey, n = 35
17 14
Copyrights
Defensive
Publishing
71
Trade
secrets/secrecy
agreements
Graph 42 PIC Stuttgart–(Internal) barriers to using IP protection mechanisms,
percentage of respondents*)
%
100
80
60
40
20
0
43
43
Costs of IP
protection
29
34
Time to make
IP protection
work
20
40
unclear
cost/benefit of
IP protection
34
29
17 17
Lack of info
on IP
protection
Lack of
qualified
personnel
high relevance medium relevance
*) multiple answers allowed. Source: User Survey, n = 35
37
3
Organisational
issues
26
Design
complexity
26
11
Awareness
63
Lead-time
advantage
6
No deliberate
IPR strategy
11
3
IPR irrelevant
in business
context