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
– together with high costs and limited resources – may constitute major barriers for
patenting abroad. A recent study by Pitkethly showed similar results (see also
section 5.4.1) (Pitkethly, 2007).
Graph 4 shows the barriers to using IPR, as they are seen by the users questioned
in the scope of this study. While there is a bias present with these SMEs (given that
they actually make use of IPR support services, in contrast to other small and
medium-sized companies which may not be even aware that such services exist),
some points are interesting to note. First, in line with other study findings, costs
and time issues are thought to be the major obstacle for a higher IPR usage. These
aspects can be considered factors outside of the company. Inside factors are
reported by the questioned SMEs to play, by comparison, a lesser but still not
insignificant role in hindering the use of IPR. Only 16 % see lack of awareness of
IPR to be a major barrier. Only 14 % see a lack of IPR expertise within the company
to be a major barrier. Information on IP protection seems to be adequately
available, with only 12 % seeing a lack of information as a major factor.
Organisational issues are of even less concern.
These results may be interpreted in several ways: Inside factors actually may not
play such an important role after all (if compared to outside issues), and policy
should, as a consequence, only concentrate on lowering the costs of the IPR system
and making it more time-efficient. This interpretation might be true either because
internal issues are, in general, not a high priority problem as concerns IPR (in which
case the other study findings would have to be questioned), or because the service
providers did a good job in transferring IPR know-how to their customers.
There are several hints, though, suggesting why another scenario seems more
plausible. First, SMEs rate the overall cost/benefit ratio to be, after the cost and
time issues, the third largest barrier to using IPR. The implication is that the costs
clearly outweigh the benefits. However, it could also point to a demand on the side
of the SMEs for a better explanation of what the benefits of using IPR are, and if
they are worth the costs. It is interesting to note in this regard that most respondents
believed that the provision of information on “why and why not to patent” to
constitute a much more important key factor for the quality of an IPR support
service than the availability of material on “how to patent”. Given that many
service providers complained about the lack of available quality staff while the
competence of staff was rated to be the most important quality factor for a service,
and also given that the skills required for an ideal IPR expert involve technical, legal
AND business know-how, it is hardly conceivable that the majority of SMEs can
marshal such staff in sufficient quality and quantity.
Graph 4 Perceived barriers for using IPR, SME users of services which were
selected as case studies for illustrating elements of good practice, in %
80
60
40
20
0
%
31
44
Costs of IP
protection
30
30
Time to make
IP protection work
Source: User survey, n= 350
28
22
unclear
cost/benefit
of IP protection
24
25 29 28
16 14 12 12
Awareness
Lack of
qualified
personnel
high relevance medium relevance
Lack of info
on IP protection
IPR irrelevant
in business context
14
6
Organisational
issues