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
IP Prédiagnosis (FRA)
Provided by the National Industrial Property Institute (INPI–Institut national de
la propriété industrielle; the French Patent Office), the overall aim of IP
Prédiagnosis is to analyse SMEs as a whole with regard to their IP and IPR
usage. The service is thus not focused on a particular project or invention. The
target group consists of enterprises that have not registered a patent before
(within the past five years) and usually do not possess an IPR strategy and/or
relevant IP management. During an IP Prédiagnosis (which can last between
1.5 to 2 days) the service provider (an IP rights expert) discusses the company’s
situation with its manager in order to identify the enterprise’s needs, wants
and expectations in the field of IPR. A standardised guidebook has been
specifically designed and tested for this purpose. The expert analyses the state
of the art of the IP management and/or strategy of the enterprise, evaluates
the significance of IPR in the present situation and formulates issues that can
probably influence the future ambitions of the company. Needs, priorities and
expectations are identified and put into a report outlining the different options
for the enterprise to protect and use its IP.
� Services that raise awareness implicitly: Another way encountered to convey
value and effective awareness in a thorough manner is through the use of
instruments which one would normally not associate as a typical means of
raising know-how on a particular subject. For example, subsidies towards
patenting costs might be designed in such a way that the supported SMEs find
themselves in a position where they will get advice/consulting on IPR within
different stages of the patent filing process. The payment instalments of the
German “INSTI SME Patent Action” subsidy are, e.g., linked to different
milestones of the patenting process, and the service team accompanies the
SME through all these different stages. The subsidy (i.e., the possibility to get
monetary support for a costly process) thus acts as a vehicle (“hygiene factor”,
as one might be tempted to call it) to create an entry point for SMEs in order
to receive – probably much more important – “fringe benefits” in the form of
IPR know-how (see also section 5.3.7 and annex I, case study nr. 1).
Things to consider when setting up awareness raising support services
in the field of IPR
The following points emerged as significant factors influencing the success of
awareness raising measures:
� The level of knowledge needed to achieve “value” as well as “simple
effective” awareness is most likely so high that single one-day events and the
typically 20-to-40 page brochures will only be able to tackle a rather small
number of issues involved in dealing with IPR. They might suffice to alert SMEs
to certain issues, but a whole range of harmonized events, brochures
and information material is needed to address the full spectrum of
problem areas. Another important consequence could be that awareness
raising measures should thus also lead to further educational offerings (e.g.,
trainings in the field of IPR), which are however, as noted in section 5.1, rather
scarce.
� Similarly, and with respect to the scope of the offerings, awareness raising in
the field of IPR includes tackling the subject of IP management, i.e., the
correct choice and usage of different IP protection/appropriation forms in
different business contexts. In this context it is interesting to note that, on
average, users of the case study services which addressed awareness raising
(e.g., serv.ip roadshows, the “What’s the key”-campaign, readers of the LIIP
publication, IP Prédiagnosis users and the users of the on-line service PVSOnline
of the Danish patent office) gauged the availability of information of “why and