Benchmarking National - PRO INNO Europe

In addition, however, a high number of users employed informal protection
methods, i.e. 41 % relied on trade secrets, 37 % relied on the complexity of design
and 29 % tried to maintain a lead time advantage over competitors.
The main internal barriers perceived for using IPR are, by far, the costs of IP
protection (for 61 % of high and for another 20 % of medium relevance) and the
time to make IP protection work (for 39 % of high, and for 29 % of medium
relevance) (see Graph 101). The lack of qualified personnel plays an important role,
too. Organisational issues are considered less relevant. External barriers towards the
availability of support services are perceived to be less severe obstacles but still not
unimportant in the overall context of the service (see Graph 102).
User reach-out and satisfaction levels
As the survey shows, the main source of information on the IPAS scheme was
Enterprise Ireland itself (59 %) as well as the internet (39 %), most probably
Enterprise Ireland’s web site. This is followed by personal recommendations (27 %),
information days and agencies (both 20 %); around 20 % of the companies also
received information from other channels, notably patent attorneys, underlining a
good cooperation between EI and members of that profession (see Graph 103).
IPAS users are, on average, very satisfied with the offered service. All the different
aspects of service provision are rated with “1.7” or better (on a scale from 1= very
satisfied to 4= unsatisfied); the highest grades were received for the competence of
staff and delivery time (both “1.4”; see Graph 104). 86 % of the users gauge the
extent of the service offerings to be adequate; 8 % think it is too narrow/
superficial.
Spatial distance seems not to be a problem (for 68 % a very low-level barrier and
for another 30 % a factor considered to be acceptable). 55 % think that the
benefits of using IPAS clearly outweigh the efforts; 43 % state that the benefits are
adequate to efforts.
Additionality of the service
In order to answer the question whether a support service works or does not work,
one should also inquire into the added value of the service – i.e., what would have
happened in case the service were absent. This is done in order to isolate a “net
effect” as opposed to things which would have happened anyway, despite of the
service. Similarly, also other type of changes incurred within the enterprise, as a
result of using the service, are to be recorded (these changes are referred to as
“behavioural additionality”).
In this sense, pure additionality effects of the IPAS scheme seem to be rather low
(see Graph 105). 9 % of the undertakings would not have been carried out at all
Graph 104 IPAS–Satisfaction levels with different aspects of service provision,
arithmetic means of grades given by respondents
Overall: Service met needs
and demands
Delivery time
Quality of provided material
Relevance of provided
information
Competence of staff
Source: User Survey, n = 41
1,4
1,5
1,4
1,5
1,7
1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0
very satisfied unsatisfied
201
ANNEX I – CASE STUDIES