Developing IPR support services in the context of cooperating regions the IPR for South East Europe

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Developing IPR support services in the context of
co-operating regions the IPR for South East
Europe project

• Alfred Radauer (Senior Consultant, Technopolis
  Group Austria)
• SEVENTH ANNUAL WIPO FORUM ON INTELLECTUAL
  PROPERTY AND SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES
  FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICES AND OTHER
  RELEVANT INSTITUTIONS IN THE ORGANIZATION FOR
  ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
  COUNTRIES
• Geneva, Sep 14 2009

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The South East Europe Programme (I)

• Aims
• to develop transnational partnerships on matters
  of strategic importance
• in order to improve the territorial, economic and
  social integration process
• to contribute to cohesion, stability and
  competitiveness of the region.
• 13 such cooperation projects in the EU in
  2007-2013 SEE is one of the largest and also
  with most diverse countries

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The South East Europe Programme (II)

• Priority Axis or the funded projects
• Priority Axis 1 Facilitation of innovation and
  entrepreneurship
• Priority Axis 2 Protection and improvement of
  the environment
• Priority Axis 3 Improvement of the accessibility
  
• Priority Axis 4 Development of transnational
  synergies for sustainable growth areas
• Managing authority National Development Agency
  (Hungary)

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The IPRforSEE project (I)

• Background for the Intellectual Property Rights
  for SEE Project (IPRforSEE) Project
• SME under-usage (non-adequate usage) of IPR
• Regional disparities
• Regional white spots in service provision
• Aims and activities of the project
• Analysis of gaps existing between local/SMEs
  needs and services available and
• development of five innovative service
  proposals(with related tools) based hereunder
• These new services shall be organized in an
  innovative way and e-learning modules for the
  training of service operators developed
• 9 pilot actions involving about 300 SMEs, from
  different economic sectors, aiming at testing
  these new services
• An independent Evaluation Committee (composed by
  NPOs and EPO) will evaluate the results according
  to a methodology and a set of indicators
• Agreement for sustainability of those services
  will be signed by the partners
• Communication/dissemination activities, in view
  to widen involvement and improve linkage with
  National and EU networks

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The IPRforSEE Project (II)

• Embedded within the South East Europe Programme
  in the following way
• Priority Facilitation of Innovation and
  Entrepreneurship
• Area of intervention Develop the enabling
  environment for innovative entrepreneurship
• Project budget
• Overall project budget 1.366.471,00
• ERDF contribution 1.076.500,00
• IPA contribution 85.000,00
• ENPI contribution 0,00
• Project start date / end date 2009-01 / 2011-06
• Technopolis contracted in August 2009 for its
  tasks
• Running time for Technopolis tasks up until
  February 2010

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The IPRforSEE Project (III)

• Lead partner
• CCIAA VE - Chambers of Commerce Industry Craft
  and Agriculture of Venice
• ERDF partners
• AWS - Austria Wirtschaftsservice GesmbH
• CCINA - Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Shipping
  and Agriculture of Constanta
• CCI KILKIS - Kilkis Chamber of Commerce and
  Industry
• KETAEPIRUS - Centre of Entrepreneurial and
  Technological Development of Epirus
• CHIC - Central Hungarian Innovation Centre NpC.
• VKIK - Veszprem Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• CCIAA AN - Chamber of Commerce Industry Craft and
  Agriculture of Ancona
• O.U.C. - Ovidius University of Constanta
• AS.FOR.M. - Transnational Association for
  Training and Vocational Mobility
• RCC-UZICE - Uzice Regional Chamber of Commerce
• ? Several partners in an observer role (mostly
  national patent offices of the region, the EPO)

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The assignment for Technopolis

• Supporting AWS in carrying out WP3 on
  Identifying service needs and development of
  service concepts (AWS is leader of WP3), and
  hereby help answer the following questions
• What type of support services are already in
  place (or planned) in the countries under
  investigation?
• What are the specific needs of SMEs in SEE in
  order to have them use the IPR system more
  effectively and where are the gaps that need to
  be addressed by innovative pilot projects?
• Which are the five most promising requirements
  and design elements for pilot projects which are
  to be implemented in subsequent work packages of
  the project?
• Outcome Study report detailing findings and five
  innovative service concepts, to be taken up by
  the following work packages

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Methdological approach taken

• Action 3.1 Analysis of available IPR support
  services (identification and benchmarking)
• Desk research (using identification guideline)
• Interviews with service providers (using
  benchmarking guideline)
• Action 3.2 Analysis of SME specific IPR needs in
  the regions
• Interviews with service operators
  (intermediaries) and SMEs
• Semi-standardised interview guidelines
• Action 3.3 Definition of innovative IPR services
• Clustering of SMEs
• Concept of service designs, related tools and
  training modules
• Usage of logical framework analysis
• ? Methodology draw strongly on proven and
  enhanced methods of earlier studies conducted by
  Technopolis

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Our thinking (I)Reference projects

• Benchmarking National and Regional Support
  Services in the Field of Industrial and
  Intellectual Property, commissioned by EC, DG
  Enterprise and Industry (PRO Inno paper no. 4)
  (Radauer et al. 2007) most important source
• Support Services in the Field of IPR for SMEs in
  Switzerland - A Review, commissioned by the
  Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property
  (Radauer Streicher 2008)
• On the growing significance of IPR for German
  SMEs and the diminishing importance of physical
  assets, commissioned by the German Federal
  Ministry of Economics and Technology (Blind,
  Cuntz, Köhler Radauer (2008))
• Supporting the improvement of existing and
  development of new IPR support services for Swiss
  SMEs, on behalf of Swiss Federal Institute of
  Intellectual Property (Radauer 2009)

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Our thinking (II) Key quality factors for the
provision of IPR services, user perceptions
Source Radauer et al. 2007 Aggregated answers
for all services, Services considered 15 n
630
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Our thinking (III)Behavioural additionality

• Changes in/of attitude/behaviour with regard to
  IP issues, due to using a support service,
  Accompanied Patent Search service, Switzerland,
  SMEs in
• Service activities affect a range of IP-relevant
  aspects.

Source Radauer Streicher 2008, n 61
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Our thinking (IV)Important criteria making up
successful IPR services

• Clear reasoning for existence for service
  packages (market failure argument), and thus
  division line to private industry offerings
• Sound target system
• Competence of staff
• Integrated offerings (all IPR out of one hand)
• Governance structures
• Evaluations and quality control
• Working cooperation structures with stakeholders
  from the innovation system
• Ease of identification/Visibility
• Timely delivery
• NOT NECESSARILY IPR Service in every locality

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Some working hypotheses for the IPRforSEE project

• Regional disparities may be a strong factor
  explaining SME needs and types of service to be
  installed
• Country-specific approach necessary (account also
  for different industry structure)
• Some countries are less developed (disadvantage),
  but can have also a fresh start (advantage)
• Existing services seem in many countries
  dominated by patent information centres
• But is classic patent information really what
  SMEs in this region need?
• Anecdotal evidence suggests that SMEs approach
  IPR services with general business questions,
  maybe also trademarks, but only to a small part
  patents
• ? Stay tuned for the results

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Thank you

• For questions, please contact
• alfred.radauer_at_technopolis-group.com

Technopolis Group has offices in Amsterdam,
Ankara, Brighton, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm,
Tallinn and Vienna.