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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

EPO: Key Recommendations from Interviewed SMEs.

On the EPO website we now can find a section

EPO's small and medium enterprise case studies:

"[...] Small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) are a key factor in the economic development and innovation. And Intellectual Property (IP) plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. However, the available information on important IP issues for SMEs, which takes into account their special needs such as time and resource constraints, actual knowledge and required understandable 'business' language, is still limited. Thus, many SMEs are challenged by the peculiarities of the IP system.

Acknowledging these facts and the paramount importance of SMEs the EPO compiled in cooperation with the Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO), the French Industrial Property Office (INPI), the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and the UK Patent Office (UKPO) a series of SME case studies on IP. All case studies are the result of intensive interviews with the individual companies. [...]"

The detailed studies are available for download

here. As a conclusion, the EPO presents

Key recommendations from interviewed SMEs:

"[...]
Develop an IP strategy: define your goals and know the level of patent protection you need at each step

Get professional help: enlist the support of a patent attorney if you do not have the skills in-house

Choose the right patent attorney: he/she should possess good knowledge of your technical field, plus fair and efficient advice taking into account your resource constraints

Do not underestimate the cost: attorney charges, translation costs, renewal and other fees add up

Demand information: get your attorney to give you a clear overview of the filing process, waiting periods and costs involved in a patent application

Adapt your filing strategy to your real business needs: do not patent everything and everywhere. Be selective and determine which ideas and markets are worth protection

Do not view licensing as failure: it can be a lucrative alternative or adjacency to manufacturing your invention

Revise your patent portfolio continuously: filter out patents with no business perspective, either for own exploitation or for licensing

Start a technology and competitor watch process: use cost-free patent information and other sources (e.g. scientific publications, trade journals) both to inspire yourself and to identify potential infringers as soon as possible

Communicate pro-actively: communicating the protection of your IP is a cost-efficient mean to reduce the potential risk of infringement

Keep in touch with your licensee: regular contact and meetings provide you with information on your licensee’s activities and thus can prevent default

Be sure of your case: if you are planning to fight an infringement make absolutely certain that you are in the right as a lawsuit could otherwise be a quick route to going out of business
[...]"

It is interesting to see details of SMEs successfully utilising the patent system. The various anti-patent campaigners groups are trying hard to give the general publich the impressions that SMEs and the patent system never can get together.

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Actually, various associations of European SME organisations (such as CEA-PME, UEAPME, CEDI and ESBA) have said that software patents (as they would have been codified by the failed software patent directive) would have an overall negative effect for SMEs.

I don't think anyone ever claimed that no single SME can ever benefit from any kind of patent in any kind of field. In fact, currently the most successful non-producing entities suing big tech giants and getting lots of money that way are probably SMEs.

# posted by Jonas Maebe : 04 May, 2006 14:34