WIPO SMEs Newsletter May 2012
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
http://www.wipo.int/sme.
NEWS
World Intellectual Property Day 2012 Celebrates Visionary Innovators
This year’s
World Intellectual Property Day on
April 26 celebrated visionary innovators - individuals whose ingenuity and artistry have broken
molds, opened new horizons and made a lasting impact. Across the world, intellectual property
(IP) Offices, associations, businesses and technology institutions and students organized numerous
activities to mark the day, including competitions, exhibitions and public discussions.
In his World IP Day message, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry described a visionary
innovator as someone whose innovations have transformed our lives and, at times, the way society
operates. In the arts, he noted, innovation revolves around new ways of seeing things. “A
visionary artist or a composer or a writer is able to show us a different way, a new way of looking
at the world,” Mr. Gurry said.
WIPO’s member states initiated World IP Day in 2000 to raise public awareness about the role
of IP in daily life, and to celebrate the contribution made by innovators and creators to the
development of societies across the globe. World IP Day is celebrated annually on April 26, the
date on which the Convention establishing WIPO entered into force in 1970.
Invitation to the launch of the GLOBAL INNOVATION INDEX 2012, Geneva, July 3, 2012
On behalf of Mr. Francis Gurry, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) and Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology, INSEAD;
we have the honor to invite you to this year’s launch of the
Global Innovation Index at WIPO
headquarters on July 3, 2012, at 10.45 a.m.
The full program of the Launch is available on the WIPO
webpage.
The discussion will focus on the theme of “Stronger Innovation Linkages to Reboot Global Growth”,
with an emphasis on the changing geography and best practices for innovation policy in the context
of a prolonged economic crisis.
Speakers will include, among others, Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), India, Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel, President of King Abdulaziz City for Science and
Technology KACST, Saudi Arabia, Werner J. Bauer, Executive Vice President, Executive Board and
Chief Technology Officer (Head of Innovation, Technology, Research and Development), Nestlé S.A.,
Switzerland, Jeong Kim, President of Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, United States of America and
Sibusiso Sibisi, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research, Member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation, South Africa
Please register
here to attend. Places are
limited and will be attributed on a first come first serve basis.
WIPO and UNIDO Agree to Strengthen Cooperation Activities
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry met on April 12, 2012 UNIDO Director General Kandeh
Yumkella to discuss the strengthening of cooperation between the two organizations in areas
relating to science and technology, innovation promotion, private sector development and trade
capacity building.Mr. Gurry and Mr. Yumkella agreed that the two organizations should collaborate
on activities to support the strengthening of capacity in developing countries to use science,
technology and innovation in addressing key development challenges in areas such as agriculture,
oceans, energy, water and public health.
Scheme to support International Patent Protection by SMEs and Technology Start up Units launched
The Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information
Technology (MCIT) and the Government of India have started a scheme to provide financial support to
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and Technology Start-Up units for international patent
filing. For more information see the
link
Record International Trademark Filings in 2011
2011 saw the highest number of international trademark applications ever filed under WIPO’s
Madrid System for the International
Registration of Marks (“Madrid system”) with 42,270 applications, or a 6.5 % increase compared
to 2010. Applications from the member states of the European Union (EU) accounted for more than
half (57.4%) of all international trademark applications, and China remained the most designated
country for trademark protection.
TRAINING/LEARNING RESOURCES ON IP ASSET MANAGEMENT
General Information on Training of Trainers Program, the SMEs Section, WIPO
The SMEs Section of WIPO supports the organization of national Training of Trainers (TOT)
Programs in countries that have translated and/or adapted the basic materials on IP for Business
published by the Section. The objective of the TOTs is to create a critical mass of trainers in the
country with enough knowledge and skills to provide assistance to SMEs on effective IP asset
management at a basic level. For more details, please see
here.
IP PANORAMA TM Multimedia Toolkit
The IP PANORAMA
™ multimedia toolkit is now available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hungarian,
Vietnamese and Thai versions on or through the pages at
http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/multimedia/ and
http://www.ippanorama.com/. CD-ROMs of the English,
Arabic, French and Spanish versions are also available on request. Anyone interested in
receiving a free copy of the CD-ROM may email
sme@wipo.int , providing the full postal address, including
telephone number, and indicating the purpose for which the CD-ROM would be used.
Deadline for Applications for 2nd Session of Step 1 of the 3rd Annual KIPO-WIPO-KAIST-KIPA Advanced International Certificate Course on IPRs & Business in English
May 20, 2012 was the deadline for applications for the 2nd session of Step 1 of the 3rd Annual
KIPO-WIPO-KAIST-KIPA Advanced International Certificate Course on IPRs & Business, which is
based on the IP PANORAMA multimedia toolkit and which is jointly organized by the Korean
Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and the Korea Invention Promotion Association
(KIPA).
200 participants would be selected on a first-come-first-served basis.
Please see the following links for more information:
LINKS
From Ideas to Growth: Helping SMEs Get Value from Their Intellectual Property
Research for SMEs and Research for SME Associations at a Glance
Research for SMEs and
Research for SME Associations are two dedicated initiatives of the European Commission to
strengthen the innovative capacities of SMEs by providing the support they need to outsource
research critical to their core business. This brochure conveniently spells out how these
initiatives are designed, and explains in plain terms how the funding model works in
practice.
A Study Report on Technology Branding in SMEs
This report issued by
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade explores the issues, challenges and the road ahead for branding
in technology based SME’s in India. The report has been developed based on in-depth analysis of two
sectors (auto components and textiles) after a pilot study done across five sectors (auto
components, textiles, electrical & electronics, software and hardware).
SME Tailor-designed Patent Portfolio Analysis
The Innovation and Patent-Centre at the Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg, a German think tank
for patent management, developed a tool specially suited for SMEs.
This article
describes the methodology of the tool and compares it to other state-of-the-art tools. The tool
gives an easy-to-understand overview for personnel with different professional backgrounds and
facilitates strategic cross-functional discussions.
The Impact of the Patent System on SMEs
Drawing on UK, European and US literature and data sources,
this paper shows that small firms are less
likely to use patents as a means of protecting their investment than other means such as
confidentiality, secrecy or time to market. SMEs are also less likely than larger firms to use
others’ patents as a source of information for their own innovative activities, preferring
customers, suppliers and trade fairs. Conversely, smaller firms are more likely than larger firms
to put their patents to productive use or to license out their technology, a pattern that is likely
to reflect relatively higher cost and capacity pressures.
PAST EVENT
Korea International Women’s Invention Exposition 2012
The 5th Korea International Women’s Invention Exposition (KIWIE) was held at the COEX in
Seoul, Korea from May 3 to 6, 2012 under the auspices of World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) and Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). Some 500 women creators, inventors and
entrepreneurs of SMEs from some 31 countries around the world participated in KIWIE 2012. Parallel
to this event, the Korea International Women’s Invention Forum was held on May 3, 2012. The
International Workshop for Women Inventors and Entrepreneurs was organized back to back with KIWIE
from May 7 to 10, 2012 at Ewha Womans University, Seoul. For more information on KIWIE 2012, please
go to its website at
www.kiwie.or.kr.
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) 2012 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 34, chemin des
Colombettes, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
