KnowING IPR - 1st Action Workshop held in Germany
18-09-2019
The first Action Plan Workshop of the Knowing IPR project has been held in Germany at the Baden-Württemberg Patent and Trademark Office (Patent- und Markenzentrum Baden-Württemberg) on July 10th, 2019 with 17 participants from 6 countries.
Stakeholders from universities, SMEs, innovation intermediaries and clusters discussed with project partners about IPR-management in organizations. After the introduction of the project and its first results, the participants had a discussion on the results and their own expertise towards a call for action for better exploitation of IPR in the Danube Region.
The topic of IPR-management requires particular attention of SMEs and higher education institutions. While many organizations have highly efficient processes for IPR-management, IPR-managers are often seen as rather a hurdle than part of the innovation management of a company. The topic of IPR enforcement and infringements is of high importance for organizations, as they often do not feel capable of enforcing their rights due to lacking capacities and financial means. Consequently, many companies do not even try to register IPR, as they do not feel capable of enforcing it anyways.
Further, patents are rather seen as a right to block than a right to exploit. Participants jointly called for more public support for IPR-management in an independent and trustful manner. In this context, the tools provided by the H2020 VIP4SME project and the recently started »Patent-Coach BW« were appraised as promising instruments not only for start-ups and SMEs, but also larger companies (> 500 employees).
The Second Action Plan Workshop was held in Kragujevac and the Third Action Plan Workshop will be held in Bara, Slovakia on Friday, Sep 20th, 2019. More info on the upcoming event is available HERE.
Follow us on:
Official KnowingIPR Facebook page
