WIPO SMEs Newsletter March 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

Brazilian Translated and Customized Versions of the four IP for Business Guides Published in Portuguese Language

The Instituto Nacional da Propiedad Industrial (INPI), Brazil with the support of WIPO has completed the customization of the four guides entitled, Making a Mark, Looking Good, Inventing the Future and Creative Expression.

WIPO’s Coordination Committee Nominates Francis Gurry for Second Term as Director General

The Coordination Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) nominated by consensus Mr. Francis Gurry for a second term as Director General of WIPO.

The WIPO General Assembly will meet in an extraordinary session on May 8-9, 2014 to confirm the nomination.

Read more.

US and China Drive International Patent Filing Growth in Record-Setting Year

The United States of America and China drove record-level patent-filing activity via WIPO in 2013 as the number of annual international patent applications surpassed the 200,000 mark for the first time. International trademark and industrial design filings also achieved new record-breaking levels.

Read more.

Expansion of Domain Name Space May Shift Trademark Protection Strategies

The unprecedented expansion of the Internet domain name space, until now dominated by .com and a handful of other generic top-level domains (gTLDs), is likely to disrupt existing strategies for trademark protection on the web.

Read more.

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

Cloud computing can help the SME sector grow and transform

The small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector is the backbone of the Indian economy as it employs around 40 per cent of the Indian workforce. With the sector growing at a rate of 8 per cent per year, India has the largest number of SMEs in the world – at 48 million – second only to China. Ironically, the contribution of this workforce is a huge mismatch of numbers as it contributes approximately only 17 per cent to the GDP.

Read more.

Allocation of shares of jointly developed results

Ownership over the intellectual property arising as a result of innovation is one of the most critical issues to resolve in the framework of collaborative projects, especially in cases where two or more partners generate results jointly. This case study sets out the likely actions to be undertaken in such a situation to avoid any drawbacks and for a proper management of a jointly owned research result.

Approaches to protection of undisclosed information (Trade Secrets)

This background paper takes stock of the available legal protection for trade secrets and presents a method for the assessment of the stringency of available protection. The objective is to better understand the nature of the protection and how it might vary across a diverse sample of countries. This information will provide an essential input for the second phase of the project that will consider the relationship of the stringency of trade secrets protection to relevant aspects of economic performance.

Nordic and Russian SMEs

A common problem shared by Nordic and Russian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is insufficient competence in protection of intellectual property rights and uncertainty about their own ability to protect their rights. This question is especially acute in IPR-sensitive business sectors, such as ICT, biotechnology, music and film. Improving the competence of IPR experts in several sectors is necessary.  Read more in English and in Russian.

Promoting and Protecting IP in the Russian Federation

Promoting and Protecting Intellectual Property in the Russian Federation is a 2012 BASCAP report, produced in cooperation with Rusbrand, which outlines the value of IP in Russia and offers comprehensive policy and legislative recommendations to advance the state's IPR regime. The BASCAP report is available from the ICC’s website in English and in Russian.

Integrating small and medium-sized enterprises into global trade flows: the case of China

Most Chinese enterprises are SMEs. Indeed, they account for more than 98 per cent of industry and contribute to 60 per cent of China’s GDP, 75 per cent of its industrial value-added output and 50 per cent of its revenue. Chinese SMEs also provide for 75 per cent of China’s urban employment opportunities and absorb more than 50 per cent of the workers laid off from the state-owned enterprises. They employ more than 70 per cent of the new entrants to the labor market. Hence, Chinese SMEs play an important role in China’s economic development, due to their contribution to GDP and the employment they create, as well as their vigorous creative ability.

Read more.

Patent Thickets: Law and Economics in Action

Patents give a monopoly over an invention until 20 years from the date of filing the application, in exchange for which the details of the invention become available to all when the application is published (typically 18 months after the filing date), and usable by all once the monopoly expires. In a fast-moving area of invention, however, some argue that this 20-year period can seem unreasonably long and a build-up of patented inventions necessary to create a single product can cause ‘patent thickets’ and prevent further innovation. Is this a reason to change patent law, or to use another area of law (such as competition law) to intervene? An examination of the economic situation, including past examples, is necessary to answer such a complex question that has worldwide implications. This article suggests that it is best to let the market, not new legislation, sort out the challenges.  

Read more.

European Trademark Protection Strategy for U.S. Small and Medium-Sized Entities after IP translator and ONEL

A foreign entity wishing to apply for trademark protection in the European Union (EU) has several options: apply for a national trademark within each individual country in which the entity intends to make use of the mark, file for a Community Trademark (CTM), or seek international trademark protection for the EU under the Madrid Protocol. However, this article explores the implications of recent court rulings for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).  Given that the CTM and national registration are the less expensive (and expansive) routes, the article focuses on registration under those models.

Innovations in access to finance for SMEs

This paper reviews a broad range of innovations in business financing and highlights examples of good practice in developed and emerging economies. This paper provides examples of a range of important innovations in SME finance and discusses some of the lessons we can draw from them. Although the definition of an SME varies widely across different markets, for the purposes of this report a small enterprise is considered to be a company with 50 or fewer workers and a medium-sized enterprise is any business with 51 to 249 workers. In common with other definitions of SMEs, this excludes companies in extractive industries, utilities and financial services.

Malaysia Debt Ventures to disburse RM200 million IPR fund by end-2014

In the wake of the strong response to its intellectual property financing scheme, Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd (MDV) expects the entire RM200mil fund to be disbursed by end-2014.

Read more.

Forthcoming Events

Forum on Asian patent information, April 10 – 11, 2014, Vienna, Austria

"East meets West" is the EPO's annual forum on Asian patent information. The forum serves as a regular platform for patent information users around the world to discuss their Asian patent information needs.
During the two-day event, plenary sessions and smaller discussion rounds will treat various Asian patent information subjects. Participants will be able to obtain an overview of the latest developments in Asian patent data during a poster session and workshops. Additionally, there will be ample opportunity for informal contact with experts from Asia and Europe. Optional training can be booked in the run-up to the forum.

For more information, please see the program. 

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

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