WIPO SMEs Newsletter January 2014
By the SMEs Section of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
WIPO SMEs Newsletter is a monthly e-publication providing readers with useful intellectual property (IP) information contained in articles, case studies, forthcoming IP/SMEs relevant events, and published presentations featured on our web site. We hope you will find it useful and informative. We encourage you to share the newsletter or items of interest with friends and colleagues. For past issues and information on the activities of the SMEs Section, please visit https://www.wipo.int/sme.
News
Release of the Russian IP PANORAMA
The Russian version of the first ten modules of IP PANORAMA TM multimedia toolkit has recently been released to the public. The Russian version is available at https://www.wipo.int/sme/en/multimedia/.
CD-ROMs of the Russian version are currently distributed free of charge for non commercial purposes to the public via WIPO, upon request. Anyone who wants to receive the CD-ROMs may contact the Publication Distribution Section of WIPO by email at publications.mail@wipo.int
South African Customized Versions of the four IP for Business guides Published
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), South Africa with the support of WIPO have completed the customization of the four guides entitled, Making a Mark, Looking Good, Inventing the Future and Creative Expression
Translated and Customized Version of the WIPO ITC guide, Secrets of IP for Exporters from Turkey Published
The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) with the support of WIPO has completed the translated and customized version.
Global Patent Filings See Fastest Growth in 18 Years
A new WIPO report shows that in 2012 global patent filings increased at their strongest rate in nearly two decades as industrial-design registration notched its best-ever rate of growth. Intellectual property (IP) filings have sharply rebounded since a 2009 decline at the height of the financial crisis.
The report shows patent filings grew by 9.2% (2.35 million applications filed) in 2012. Utility model (UM) filings increased by 23.4%, industrial design filings by 17%, and trademark filings by 6.0%.
WIPO Re: Search Helps Take the Neglected out of Tropical Diseases
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), together with Seattle, USA-based BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), have launched a program WIPO Re:Search that stimulates the development of new products to fight neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis.
Now two years old, WIPO Re:Search includes dozens of active partners on all five continents, including some of the worlds biggest pharmaceutical companies as well as research institutes in neglected disease-endemic countries, all working with the same goal: to take the neglected out of tropical medicine.
The unique program brings together public and private resources, along with researchers from around the world, to work toward new diagnostics, treatments and vaccines for these diseases. Significantly, any new products that eventually come to market through the program must be sold royalty-free in least-developed countries.
Already, WIPO Re:Search has brokered some 40 agreements. Through WIPO Re:Search, African research centers are providing samples from the ground to some of the worlds best-known medical facilities. Pharmaceutical companies are sharing compounds and know-how they already have, and which might also be useful in treating neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis.
Already, four African scientists have begun months-long training programs overseas, through a grant provided by the Australian government.
In the coming years, WIPO Re:Search hopes to continue signing up new partners to expand its possibilities, while increasing its focus on bringing together existing members in new and fruitful collaborations.
Resources on IP Asset Management IP PANORAMA Multimedia Toolkit
The IP PANORAMA multimedia toolkit is now available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hungarian, Vietnamese and Thai versions on or through the pages at https://www.wipo.int/sme/en/multimedia and http://www.ippanorama.com/.
CD-ROMs of the English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic versions are also available on request. Anyone interested in receiving a free copy of the CD-ROM may email publications.mail@wipo.int providing the full postal address, including telephone number, and indicating the purpose for which the CD-ROM would be used. Please note that requests without complete postal address will not be processed.
Links
IP Basics: Do I Need a Patent?
This guide will help to decide if a patent is right for your innovation; learn more about the processes by which an Intellectual Property Office grants patents; and learn how to enforce your patent.
Creativity and Entrepreneurship: Whats the Link?
Business and creativity arent generally thought to go hand in hand. The idea is that you have either creative head-in-the-cloud types or practical business types. But then theres the entrepreneur, who both creates an innovative new offering, and uses business savvy to try get the market to catch it. The entrepreneur is more than a business person, but also a creator. The intrepid entrepreneur performs a balancing act between the brains left and right hemispheres. So how does the link between entrepreneurship and creativity work?
Commercializing Intellectual Property: Franchising
This fact sheet, as a part of the series on Commercializing IP, deals with franchising. According to the statistics of the European Franchise Federation, in 2009 the EU-17 Member States had more than 10,000 franchise brands, 10.8% of which represented the share of employment among SMEs. Franchising has been increasingly used by European companies and individuals as a route for exploitation of intangibles and expansion of their business to other territories and countries. This fact sheet will therefore help you understand what franchising is and particularly why it is an attractive business option, whether you are a potential franchisor or franchisee. Moreover, you will find in this document information on the legal environment in Europe and a checklist of the main steps to take when establishing a franchising partnership.
Technological Innovation in Indian SMEs: Need, Status and Policy Imperatives
SMEs, due to their unique characteristics, are found to have inherent capabilities to undertake technological innovations successfully across industries and nations. While there is considerable empirical evidence to throw light on SME innovation contributions in the context of developed countries, there is hardly any evidence to reveal how innovative SMEs are in rapidly industrializing economies like India. This paper reveals the core findings of two empirical Innovation Projects implemented in the previous decade in Bangalore, the globally known high-tech city of India.
Indian SMEs are largely incremental innovators, prompted by their customers and involved in product and/or process innovations. But the majority carried out innovations with internal efforts only, whereas the minority - which obtained external support - had better technical strength, indulged in more frequent innovations for both products and processes. Such SMEs achieved better innovation performance as well as better economic performance. Some of them internationalized themselves in the process. However, such achievements are an oasis in the vast Indian SME sector. How to promote (i) innovations, (ii) quality of innovations and (iii) patenting culture among the SMEs is a challenge for Indian Policy Makers. The paper concludes with proposing some policy recommendations in this direction.
IP Opportunity with the Support of the Enterprise Europe Network
This case study tells how an SME can succeed in filing patent applications with the support of the Enterprise Europe Network. Having proper competences and cooperating closely with international network partners, EEN representatives assist in developing the potential and innovative capacity of SMEs. EEN partners facilitate direct contact with university experts and patent agents. Such contacts are helpful in the development of new products which are the subject of patent applications filed by network clients.
The IP Law and Competition Law Overlap: Lessons to Learn for Patent Owners
This paper highlights some of the key issues and gives practical guidance as to how patentees and other IP rights owners should behave in order to comply with competition regulations where they cross over into the IP field.
Understanding Key Impediments to Small Businesses in South Pacific Island Nations: A Case of Fiji
Small businesses are essential in alleviating poverty and creating jobs in most developing economies. This is especially true for the small South Pacific Island nations. The truth is that very little is known about micro and small enterprise growth in the South Pacific island nations. This exploratory study examines the most pressing challenges faced by small business owners in Fiji.
Forthcoming Events
WIPO Workshop for Mediators, May 22-23, 2014, Geneva, Switzerland
The significant time and cost that can be associated with court proceedings are increasingly causing parties to look for alternative ways of settling their disputes. Mediation is an extension of direct negotiations between the parties to a dispute, conducted with the aid of a neutral intermediary, the mediator. It is the preferred mode of dispute resolution in many of the most important markets of Asia, as well as an increasingly popular method of dispute settlement in the United States of America and in Europe.
As an international resource center in the area of intellectual property mediation and arbitration, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center will offer a Workshop for Mediators in IP Disputes on Thursday, May 22 and Friday, May 23, 2014 at the headquarters of WIPO in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Workshop is held in English and is designed for lawyers, business executives, patent and trademark specialists and others who wish to become familiar with the mediation process and receive training as mediators. Taught by Professor Robert H. Mnookin of Harvard Law School and Professor Gary J. Friedman of the Center for Mediation in Law of Mill Valley, California, the program is based on simulated intellectual property mediation exercises.
For more information of the Workshop, see https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/events/workshops/2014/mediation/Note:
The SMEs Section welcomes voluntary contributions of articles, case studies, news items, useful links and relevant information concerning forthcoming events of interest to entrepreneurs and SMEs for inclusion in future issues of this newsletter; contributions may be sent by email to sme@wipo.int.
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Copyright (c) 2014 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 34, chemin des Colombettes, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
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