WIPO SMEs Newsletter February 2013

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

WIPO’s Global Brand Database Tops the 10 Million Mark

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced today a major expansion of its public database of trademark and brand information. The newest addition of six national collections of trademark records – including the entire United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) collection – takes the Global Brand Database from 2.2 to 10.9 million records, making it the world’s largest free, public trademark search facility.

The Global Brand Database streamlines trademark searches, allowing users to search simultaneously twelve data collections via a single, intuitive interface, rather than searching separately the trademark data of WIPO, the USPTO, Canada and other participating offices.

The unified database includes:

WIPO’s own data collections of international trademarks registered under the Madrid System; as well as appellations of origin registered under the Lisbon System; and armorial bearings, flags and other state emblems as well as the names, abbreviations and emblems of intergovernmental organizations protected under Article 6terof the Paris Convention.
National data collections made available by the IP offices of Algeria, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Estonia, Morocco, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United States.

The Global Brand Database boasts state-of-the-art search features that make it quick and easy for users to find what they are looking for. Key features include:

search by classifications of images/figurative elements and goods and services;
automatic suggestion of potential matching terms;
“fuzzy” and phonetic matching of terms;
facility to search U.S. documents using the U.S. image classification
filters based on source or legal status
choice of quick lists or detailed results
analysis of geographical distribution

The Global Brand Database can be accessed from the WIPO GOLDportal, along with WIPO’s PATENTSCOPEtechnology database - which now contains over 18.6 million patent records – and WIPO’s other searchable data collections.

WHO, WIPO, WTO Release Study on Health Innovation and Access to Medicines

For the first time, the three global intergovernmental bodies dealing with health, intellectual property and trade have pooled their expertise on a study of policies needed to advance medical and health technologies and to ensure they reach the people who need them.

The book, “ Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between Public Health, Intellectual Property and Trade,” was launched on 5 February 2013, by the heads of the three bodies — the World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO).

USPTO Seeking Comments on Matters Related to the Harmonization of Substantive Patent Law

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking stakeholder input on matters relating to international harmonization of substantive patent law. To assist in gathering this information, a public hearing will be held on March 21, 2013, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET in the USPTO’s Madison Auditorium located at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia.

In 2011, leaders and representatives from the patent offices of Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Patent Office – known as the Tegernsee Group – launched a dialogue on the international harmonization of substantive patent law. At a meeting convened in October 2012, experts from the Tegernsee Group offices were tasked to collaboratively develop a joint questionnaire to aid in the acquisition and analysis of stakeholder views across jurisdictions on four issues of particular interest to harmonization of substantive patent law: grace period, publication of applications, treatment of conflicting applications, and prior user rights. It is expected that each patent office will separately administer the joint questionnaire to its respective stakeholders. The USPTO questionnaire will be open to anyone interested in participating in the process.

The Federal Register publication – Notice of Public Hearing and Request for Comments on Matters Related to the Harmonization of Substantive Patent Law – can be found at www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/01/2013-01966/harmonization-of-substantive-patent-law-request-for-comments-public-hearings.

While it is strongly preferred that interested members of the public use the questionnaire in lieu of submitting written comments, separate written comments may be submitted to the USPTO via electronic mail message to IP.Policy@uspto.gov. All written responses and requests to present oral testimony at the hearing are due by February 28, 2013.

The USPTO plans to make the public roundtable available via Webcast. Webcast information will be available on the USPTO's Internet Web site at www.uspto.gov/ip/global/aia_harmonization.jsp before the public hearing. A transcript of the hearing along with comments from the public will also posted online.

Resources on IP Asset Management

Deadline for Applications for 3rd Session of Step 1 of the 4th Annual KIPO-WIPO-KAIST-KIPA Advanced International Certificate Course on IPRs & Business in English

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. Please note that requests without complete postal address will not be processed.

LINKS

Commercializing Intellectual Property: Joint Ventures

“ Commercializing IP” is a series of fact sheets aiming to provide an introduction to the forms of commercialization that can be useful for less advanced public likely to be involved in exploitation of intangible assets. Content provided therein is not intended to be exhaustive and professional advice is strongly recommended when it comes to choosing the most suitable commercialization practice to your organization.

The present fact sheet focuses on joint ventures (JV) and will put forward some practical and legal issues, mainly from the perspective of the ownership and exploitation of IP, to be considered at all stages of these projects. It points out that if organizations anticipate and properly manage most of the legal risks, they will be able to maximize the financial gains that such settlements are aimed at. Generally, joint ventures have the goal to further develop and/or commercialize intellectual assets belonging to existing organizations, through a separate legal entity or in project collaborations. In both cases, venture partners will license or assign their IP for it to be used for the scope of the JV. Joint venture practices are widely spread across the industry sectors, but also occur in the academic environment.

Intellectual Property Awareness and Enforcement: Innovative Services for Mediterranean SMEs

The IP-SMEs project developed in the Mediterranean area, strengthens the implementation of innovative tools in the field of intellectual property rights and redesigns the current supply of services. The IP-SMEs boosts competitiveness by encouraging access of SMEs to the instruments of intellectual property, providing innovative services to increase the use of intellectual property rights in order to support technology transfer processes and develop their businesses. In addition, the IP-SMEs project offers a solution to the need for transnational services, by encouraging cooperation between all stakeholders (national patent and trademark offices, chambers of commerce, universities, councils, research institutes, etc.). Its activities started in June 2010 and they will last until May 2013.

For more information, please see here.

International Patent P rotection f or Small Businesses

This report’s findings support the notion that many small businesses may benefit from extending patent rights outside the U.S., but too few are aware of the need to do so or the pathways and mechanisms that are available to make these decisions accurately and pursue them cost effectively. To improve awareness and expertise among small businesses, the USPTO and the Small Business Administration (SBA) are positioned to build upon several successful current intellectual property education and training programs. One such program is the USPTO’s Intellectual Property Awareness Campaign, focusing on intellectual property basics and offered since 2005 to over a thousand small businesses in various cities throughout the U.S. To reach more small businesses, it may be productive to scale up the current IPAC program through existing partnerships between the USPTO and SBA. The USPTO also recommends ongoing industry engagement to investigate useful approaches to solving the issues raised in this report, including possibly public-privatepartnerships or other means of helping small businesses.

An Economic Analysis of Copyright, Secondary Copyright and Collective Licensing

This report collates and sets out an analysis of the available evidence relating to the economic value of copyright. Copyright supports the producers of creative content by requiring users to seek to use original material in certain ways; the economic value of secondary copyright, which is concerned with the reproduction of materials protected by copyright which requires the copyright owner's permission; and the role, effectiveness and efficiency of organizations that administer secondary copyright and the economic benefits to both users and rights owners of collective licensing.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Search Matters 2013 - 25th edition of the EPO's most successful seminar , Hague, March 18 and 19, 2013

This two-day seminar gives experienced patent search professionals from industry and law firms unrivalled access to the know-how and expertise of many EPO patent examiners and other staff working in a variety of technical fields. Lectures in the latest developments in patent classification, search tools and databases will be complemented by a broad range of workshops, presented by EPO experts, on search strategies and the state of the art in particular technological fields, such as telecommunications, biotechnology and climate change mitigation.

Further information is available at http://www.epo.org/learning-events/events/search/search-matters.html

Worldwide Symposium on Geographical Indications, Bangkok, March 27 to 29, 2013

The 2013 edition of the Worldwide Symposium on Geographical Indications is being organized jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) of Thailand. It will take place at the Centara Grand Hotel (Floor 23, World Ballroom) at Central World. The working languages of the Symposium are English, French and Thai with simultaneous interpretation.

The program of the Symposium covers the technicalities of the subject and recent developments in the field of geographical indications (GIs), including a roundup of recent developments and initiatives in the field of geographical indications, with a particular emphasis on GIs for nonagricultural products; the management of geographical indications, in particular the role of producer groups and the traceability and control schemes for geographical indications; branding strategies, marketing and enforcement issues in the field of geographical indications: how marketing-oriented GI producers and intermediaries build and sustain trust; foresight and horizon scanning following emerging issues; and the current debate to set up an international registration system for GIs.

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