Benchmarking National - PRO INNO Europe

9. Intellectual Property
Assistance Scheme (IPAS)
Country: Ireland
Original title: Intellectual Property Assistance Scheme (IPAS)
Target group: SMEs
Coverage: National
(Pro-active) awareness raising measures/Public Relations
Information Provision Services
Category*: Training
Customized in-depth consulting and advisory services/
X
points
X Finance & Legal Framework
*classification system defined by the Austrian Institute for SME Research
9.1 The Intellectual Property Assistance Scheme
in a nutshell
The IPAS Scheme is a service where Irish SMEs can get financial support for their
patenting projects. It was chosen as an example of a support service operated by a
national funding agency in the scope of the underlying benchmarking study for its
unique character in Ireland, its high selectivity, its expert staff running the service
and its effective collaborative links with patent attorneys. Limited resources and a
tendency towards marginalisation within the funding portfolio of the servicerunning
development agency (also expressed in terms of marketing activities) as
well as a rather low user take up (which is in turn also due to the high selectivity)
can, however, be seen as future challenges.
The IPAS scheme is provided by Enterprise Ireland (EI), the national agency for the
development of indigenous enterprises in the manufacturing and internationally
traded services sector. It is a rather old scheme (dating back to the 1970s).
Although the scheme itself has changed over time, the objective remains to assist
SMEs to protect their intellectual property arising from R&D activities by providing
advice and financial support. Directly responsible for the IPAS scheme within
Enterprise Ireland is the Intellectual Property Unit (IPU).
The IPU staff assesses applications for funding under the IPAS scheme and
undertakes the role of an “honest broker” by providing advice to enterprises on
information that they may have received from their patent attorney. In addition,
the IPU operates a similar scheme for the higher education sector, named Higher
Education Sector Patent Protection Scheme, which accounts for three-quarters of
the Unit’s annual budget.
The IPAS scheme is focussed on patents; funding is only provided for patent
protection – IPAS does not provide any financial support for other IPR related
services, i.e. initial patent searches or filings. However, funding towards the cost of
these activities may be available from Enterprise Ireland. The IPAS scheme thus
focuses on the process of development/registration of IPR only and does not cover
other phases (prior search, acquisition, utilisation of IPR) of IPR usage and
development. The service is offered on a national level. The patent-centricity can
be seen as a disadvantage, as there are no other schemes available in Ireland for
SMEs to tackle the issue of IP management by utilising the full range of IP protection
instruments.
According to EI, the IPAS scheme is a relatively small financial support scheme
within the context of the support provided by Enterprise Ireland to indigenous
SMEs and no target figures have been set – though this may change in the
future.
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ANNEX I – CASE STUDIES