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
might just look for recent updates and changes with respect to the IPR
framework, while again others have very specific questions regarding, e.g.,
ongoing patenting projects. Against this background, it seems necessary to
tailor publications and especially events clearly to specific target groups and
communicate corresponding distinctions accordingly: The Australian Smart
Start initiative by IP Australia, for example, focuses explicitly at enterprise
starters. The “What’s the key”-campaign, another example, provided the
possibility to participants to pose questions via a website before the actual
event was held, allowing it to prepare answers and adapt presentations
according to the needs of the customers.
� The value of case studies as a means to convey the practicability of the
presented information in publications, on websites and events has been
underlined in statements of SME users in the case study analysis as well as in
statements given by service providers.
� Of course, the quality of the information/content provided in the
various booklets and on the websites is an important determinant for the
success of an awareness raising measure. As the content of most of the
awareness raising material has not been subjected to a peer review by IP
professionals in the course of this study, little can be said with respect to this
issue. Anecdotal statements received by IPR experts suggest that this may be
less of a problem, and in this context it is noteworthy to state that the user
satisfaction levels of the users of the awareness raising case study services with
the quality of the information provided is rather high.
� Very little can be said about the value of IT tools in the context of IPR
awareness raising, due to difficulties in obtaining reasonable amounts of
contact addresses of users or any other types of documents indicating the
performance of the applications for that matter. There is, however, some form
of consensus on the side of the interviewed IPR experts, who indicate that not
too much should be expected from IT tools – while probably useful for creating
preliminary and basic awareness on some IPR issues, the limits of entirely
computer-based applications are likely to be reached very fast.
All in all, one can say that there are plenty of – mostly valuable – examples which
raise awareness of SMEs to a basic level where the firms will be led to believe that
IP and Intellectual Property Rights are an area which needs to be looked into further
and which is of importance to the operation of a business. The question is whether
the plentiful available information booklets and data presented on websites suffice
to create the intended value and simple effective awareness level as described by
Pitkethly. Most likely, follow-up educational offerings and training might be needed
to create such knowledge levels beyond this first very first type of awareness. If such
follow-ups do not exist, SMEs might remain stuck with their “initial” knowledge.
A second important issue concerns the marketing and visibility of the awareness
raising measures; as described, institutional set-ups are often a limiting factor for a
higher user take-up (see also section 5.3.3).
5.4.2 Fee reductions and subsidy services –
an alternative to a reformed IPR framework?
The cost issue revisited
As stated in section 3.4, the costs of using IPR are, particularly in Europe, considerable
and are frequently mentioned as the main barrier for a wider usage of the system of
Intellectual Property Rights by SMEs. This issue applies especially to patents – with
no Community Patent on the horizon and ongoing debates regarding the
introduction of the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) and European
Patent Judiciary (EJA) (see also section 3.2.1), one has to assume that the cost
situation is not likely to change in the foreseeable future in the EPO member states.