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Benchmarking National - PRO INNO Europe

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262<br />

BENCHMARKING NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMES IN THE FIELD OF INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL <strong>PRO</strong>PERTY<br />

A high number of companies experienced hampering factors for innovation during<br />

the past years (see Graph 156). The rankings towards the single aspects is very<br />

comparable to similar IPR support services: TNS users complain mostly about<br />

economic risks (for 56 % of high and 24 % of medium relevance), lack of financial<br />

resources (for 50 % of high and 28 % of medium relevance) and high innovation<br />

costs (for 45 % of high and for further 36 % of medium relevance). Other factors,<br />

i.e. regulations and standards or client responsiveness are also considered to be<br />

important.<br />

TNS users employed a high number of formal IPR protection methods during 2003<br />

and 2005 (see Graph 157). 60 % state that they filed for a patent in that time<br />

period; 38 % had a patent granted or valid. Moreover, 48 % used trade marks to<br />

protect their IP, 44 % design patterns/ utility models. Regarding informal IPR<br />

protection, 28 % tried to maintain a lead time advantage over competitors, 20 %<br />

used trade secrets and/or secrecy agreements; 18 % relied on the complexity of<br />

design.<br />

For TNS users, costs, time issues and unclear cost/benefits of IP protection represent<br />

the main internal barriers for using IPR methods (see Graph 158). It can be assumed<br />

that the reason why general awareness is considered less relevant is simply that TNS<br />

offers complementary services to those companies which are already aware of their IPR.<br />

Graph 158 TNS IP–(Internal) barriers to using IP protection mechanisms,<br />

percentage of respondents*)<br />

%<br />

100<br />

80<br />

60<br />

40<br />

20<br />

0<br />

26<br />

62<br />

Costs of IP<br />

protection<br />

38<br />

48<br />

Time to make<br />

IP protection<br />

work<br />

44<br />

26<br />

30 26<br />

unclear<br />

cost/benefit of<br />

IP protection<br />

*) multiple answers allowed. Source: User Survey, n = 50<br />

Lack of<br />

qualified<br />

personnel<br />

34<br />

18<br />

Lack of info<br />

on IP<br />

protection<br />

high relevance medium relevance<br />

40 30<br />

12<br />

IPR irrelevant<br />

in business<br />

context<br />

Graph 159 TNS IP–(External) barriers to using IP protection mechanisms,<br />

percentage of respondents*)<br />

%<br />

80<br />

70<br />

60<br />

50<br />

40<br />

30<br />

20<br />

10<br />

0<br />

24<br />

48<br />

Lack of info on available support<br />

services<br />

*) multiple answers allowed. Source: User Survey, n = 50<br />

36<br />

34<br />

Lack of accessibility of support<br />

services<br />

high relevance medium relevance<br />

16<br />

Awareness<br />

32<br />

14<br />

20<br />

6<br />

Organisational<br />

issues<br />

Lack of quality of available<br />

support services

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