WIPO SMEs Newsletter September 2010

By the SMEs Division 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 Division, please visit http://www.wipo.int/sme.

NEWS

Official Release of the Hungarian IP PANORAMA ^TM

The Hungarian version of the first ten modules of IP PANORAMA ^TM multimedia toolkit which the Hungarian Patent Office (HPO) created, at its own cost, under an agreement between WIPO and HPO has been recently released to the public. The Hungarian version is available via online at http://www.mszh.hu/ippanorama/, which is linked to http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/multimedia/. CD-ROMs of the Hungarian version will be distributed free of charge for non-commercial purposes to Hungarian SMEs via HPO’s partner institutions (regional offices of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, PATLIB Centres etc).

Ministers Share National Experiences on Innovation, Growth and Development

Some 70 ministers from across the globe participating in the high-level segment of the WIPO Assemblies, which opened on September 20, 2010, shared their national experiences in relation to the role of intellectual property (IP) in promoting innovation, growth and development, and reaffirmed their commitment to IP in supporting these objectives. In his opening remarks, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry also highlighted the central importance of IP to innovation, growth and economic development and significant changes in the innovation landscape. World famous singer songwriter Stevie Wonder also addressed the high-level segment and called on the international community to enhance accessibility by visually impaired persons to copyright protected works.

WIPO Launches One-Stop Search & Reference Tool for IP Laws and Treaties

WIPO launched on September 20, 2010 WIPO Lex, an on-line global intellectual property (IP) reference resource which provides up-to-date information on national IP laws and treaties. This centralized search facility, which offers a user-friendly interface and functionalities, is in line with one of the Organization’s strategic goals, namely, to serve as a world reference source for IP information and analysis.

WIPO Lex currently features the complete IP legal texts for over 60 countries with substantial coverage for a further 100 legal systems. Consistent with the spirit of the Development Agenda, it also provides, especially for countries that still do not have their own database of laws, an Internet platform to make available information concerning their respective IP legislation.

TRAINING/LEARNING RESOURCES ON IP ASSET MANAGEMENT

SME-IP Project of Swiss Federal Institute of IP

To support SMEs in finding a successful way to deal with their inventions and creations, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property offers various online and offline information, services such as the Assisted Patent Search, the IP Advisory Network and, in particular, a contact person on the phone under the “SME-IP” Project. For more information on the project please visit http:// www.ipi.ch/sme-ip.

IP PANORAMA ^TM Multimedia Toolkit

The IP PANORAMA ™ multimedia toolkit is now available in English, Arabic, Thai and Hungarian through the SMEs Division’s website. The English and Arabic versions are also available on CD-ROM upon request. The learning points (in English) of the
IP PANORAMA™ multimedia toolkit is available in pdf format on the website as well as in the form of a book. Anyone interested in receiving a free copy of the CD-ROM and/or book containing the learning points may send a request by email to sme@wipo.int including their full postal address, telephone number, and the purpose for which the CD-ROM/book would be used.

LINKS

Making Public Support for Innovation in the EU More Effective

This is a staff working document of the European Commission to support an open and informed discussion on how best to improve the effectiveness of public innovation support mechanisms in the EU. This document which was written after public consultation on the effectiveness of innovation support in Europe and for which it targeted more than 1,000 companies and 430 innovation intermediaries, reveals a high degree of dissatisfaction with existing innovation support measures.

Patented Spray-on Frabric, Fabrican Ltd.

http://www.fabricanltd.com/index.php

Plan and Manage a Science Park in the Mediterranean – Guidebook for Decision Makers

This guidebook is written in cooperation with the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, Medibitikar and the City of Marseille and takes stock of Mediterranean countries’ experience and of the knowledge accumulated by experts regarding the planning and management of technopoles and science parks and their creation process.

Intellectual Property and Developing Countries – A Review of the Literature

This research paper is prepared by the RAND Corporation for the UK Intellectual Property Office and the UK Department for International Development in assessing the impact of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries, in the context of the WTO/TRIPS and the development of TRIPS-plus standards.

Trade Secrecy, Innovation, and the Requirement of Reasonable Secrecy Precautions

Robert G. Bone argues in this paper that the reasonable secrecy precautions (RSP) requirement in trade secret law warrants more serious attention than it has received. Given the history of the doctrine and the failure of its standard justifications, it is very likely that the requirement should be eliminated. However, it is also possible, though uncertain, that the RSP requirement creates sufficient enforcement cost and/or signaling benefits to warrant retaining it on cost benefit grounds. In any event, these potential benefits should be analyzed more carefully before any decision about the RSP requirement is made.

Best Global Brands 2010

http://issuu.com/interbrand/docs/bgb_report_us_version?mode=a_p

Choosing the Scope of Trade Secret Law when Secrets Complement Patents

Elisabetta Ottoz and Franco Cugno present in this paper a model where an incumbent firm has a proprietary product whose technology consists of at least two components, one of which is patented while the other is kept secret. At the patent expiration date, an entrant firm will enter the market on the same technological footing as the incumbent if it is successful in duplicating, at certain costs, the secret component of the incumbent’s technology. Otherwise, it will enter the market with a production cost disadvantage. They argue that under some conditions a broad scope of trade secret law is socially beneficial.

Patent and Trade Secret Complementariness: An Unsuspected Synergy

Patents and trade secrets are viable alternative modes of protection in the intellectual property field. Hence, it is patents and—not or—trade secrets because they can and should be relied upon at the same time and side-by-side to protect any given invention or innovation. Thus, a policy and practice of utilizing both routes for optimal protection and invulnerable exclusivity is rational, practical, and profitable.

Where IPR protection fails Open Innovation

http://www.icsid.org/feature/current/articles1159.htm

Alternatives to Prompt, High-Quality Examination of All Patent Applications

Deferred examination, multi-track examination, and multi-tiered patent systems have been proposed as systemic approaches to alleviate the backlog problem in Patent Offices around the world. This paper discusses some of these proposals and evaluates their potential viability for the United States patent system. It concludes that none of these suggestions offers an acceptable backlog-mitigation solution for the United States. Instead, structural approaches including those under consideration by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), such as significant increases in examiner hiring and retention, rules reforms, and efficiency gains through employment practices and infrastructure upgrades, provide a more realistic path towards eliminating the backlog problem.

FOTHCOMING EVENTS

Eighth Annual WIPO Forum on Intellectual Property and SMEs for Intellectual Property Offices and Other Relevant Institutions in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Countries, October 4 and 5, 2010, Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi (UIBM), Rome, Italy

Autumn workshops from the EPO - with all new material!

The EPO will be running four workshops this autumn, each with a different program using four or more of the twenty ip4inno modules, on topics ranging from IP commercialization, licensing, valuation and financing topics; patent information; and IP enforcement. For more information on the workshops and their different programs, please follow these links:

October 25 and 26 - Munich, Germany: http://application.epo.org/ipcal/i_event.php?id=6835
November 2 and 3 - Vienna, Austria: http://application.epo.org/ipcal/i_event.php?id=6833
November 8 and 9 - Berlin, Germany: http://application.epo.org/ipcal/i_event.php?id=6832
November 15 and 16 - Hague, Netherlands: http://application.epo.org/ipcal/i_event.php?id=6834

Attendance costs 200€ for each 2-day workshop - but places are limited to just 20 seats per workshop.

WIPO Arbitration Workshop, October 21-22, 2010 (Geneva, Switzerland)

Arbitration is a procedure in which a dispute is submitted, by agreement of the parties, to one or more arbitrators who make a binding decision on the dispute. In choosing arbitration, the parties opt for a private dispute resolution procedure instead of going to court. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center will offer an Arbitration Workshop in Geneva on Thursday, October 21 and Friday, October 22, 2010. This Workshop will provide intensive basic training of a practical nature for party representatives in arbitration and for arbitrators, as well as others wishing to familiarize themselves with the international arbitration process. The training, which will be conducted by experienced international arbitrators, will focus on the main principles of international commercial arbitration law and practice, with particular reference to the practical application of the WIPO Arbitration and Expedited Arbitration Rules (as well as the WIPO Expert Determination Rules) in intellectual property and technology disputes. Further information is available at http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/events/

PAST EVENT

Training of Trainers Program on Intellectual Property Management for SMEs, June 25 to 30, 2010, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

NOTE:

The SMEs Division 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.

If you have received this newsletter from someone and would like to subscribe yourself, then simply send an e-mail to sme@wipo.int with "subscribe" as the subject, and indicate your language preference (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Russian).

The past issues of this newsletter, since August 2001, may be accessed here.