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DOING IT PROPERLY

The IP crime Group (UK)

Title of case:

Co-ordination of IPR Enforcement through the UK

IP Crime Group

Organisation:

TheIP Crime Group: a multi agency coalition of government policy makers, public enforcement bodies and private industry experts. The Group was conceived and is facilitated by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO).

IPR Expert Group Recommendations:

It is necessary to establish Co-ordination Offices for IPR issues and enforcement, both at a European and at national levels;

Where not currently in place, a common Intellectual Property service has to be developed

Areas that the case illustrates

  • Strategic co-ordination
  • Comprehensive approach to all forms of IPR
  • Enforcement strategy
  • Intelligence gathering
  • Effective liaison with police, customs and industry investigative bodies

The UK IPO’s services relate to:

  • Patents
  • Trademarks
  • Designs
  • Copyright

Brief description:

The UK Government has promoted co-ordinated enforcement support for all forms of IPR (except patents) and has developed an enforcement strategy that brings together all the relevant agencies through the IP Crime Group. The IPCG is structured around specific Expert Groups who carry out agreed work and implement the strategy. Above these a Tasking and Coordinating Group is the key decision making assembly.

Full description

In 2004, the UK Government decided on a major reform of its provision for intellectual property as part of a reappraisal of the significance of IPR within economic policy and especially for the promotion of innovation and growth in a modern economy.

As a result, there were a number of structural changes – new organisations were created and the former Patent Office (now UKIPO) was given a wider remit and orientation aimed at improving the protection of intellectual property.

Central to the new approach, as far as enforcement of IPRs are concerned, was the establishment of the National IP Crime Group, which brings together in regular meetings the full range of policy-makers, industry stakeholders, and enforcers, including:

  • the Serious Organised Crime Agency
  • the Assets Recovery Agency
  • Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs
  • the Crown Prosecution Service
  • the Association of Chief Police Officers
  • local enforcement agencies such as trading standards organisations, and
  • commercial interests from brand owners to the creative industries

The aim has been to create a co-ordinated approach to IP enforcement and oversee the implementation of the National IP Crime Strategy. Important elements in this Strategy are:

  • establishing an accurate measurement of the level of IP crime within the United Kingdom
  • identifying areas of threat and specific harm to the public
  • building a more consistent approach to the enforcement of IP Crime
  • identifying sources of key knowledge and expertise
  • bringing together and building local, national and international partnerships and co-ordinating UK and international intelligence and action
  • setting priorities and focusing the allocation of resources
  • supporting training for enforcement officers
  • spreading best practice
  • continuing to raise consumer awareness
  • measuring performance and evaluating the impact

The IP Crime Team in the UKIPO provides operational support for this Strategy, developing intelligence and supporting enforcement action. The Team has developed a dedicated IT-based knowledge system, and is promoting co-ordination of the various agencies at the local, regional and national levels. Information is also passed to Interpol to support enforcers tackling serious and organised crime operating on an international scale.

This enforcement 'hub' has staff with specialised knowledge and experience, for instance in intelligence gathering, development, and financial investigations. As result, the Team's resources are in a position to help enforcement all the way through the process from the initial identification of the problem to arrest and assets recovery action.

An Annual National Enforcement Report provides a public account of progress.

The IPO also provides training for a range of officials in IPR enforcement matters and is developing a useful intermediation service between SMEs and the enforcement authorities in the police and customs services. In this sense, the IPO acts as a bridge between SMEs and the authorities, providing templates, for instance, to help SMEs present their case and, in this and other ways, helping the authorities to act upon the information provided.

A public reporting system allows enterprises and citizens to report incidents of counterfeiting and piracy by phone, e-mail, letter, or fax.

Transferability & Performance:

Evaluation and measurement of performance is built into the National IP Crime Strategy and the results presented in the Annual National Enforcement Report.

Further information:

Web site:

Contact details:

Concept House

Cardiff Road

Newport

South Wales

NP10 8QQ

United Kingdom

Tel:+44 1633 813930

E-mail: enquiries@ipo.gov.uk

DKPTO Customer Service (DK)

Title of case

The Customer Service of Denmark’s Patent and Trademark Office

Organisation

Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO)

IPR Expert Group Recommendation

The design of all support services has to start with the needs of users (SMEs) and have a distinctive customer service orientation.

Service areas that the case illustrates

  • Extensive information provision
  • On-line registration facilities
  • Wide-ranging advice offered
  • Structured training programme

DKPTO’s services relate to:

  • Patents
  • Utility models
  • Trademarks
  • Designs

Brief description

The Danish Patent and Trademark Office is characterised by a strong service orientation. This has developed over a number of years as the organisation has moved from being a traditional patent office, largely concerned with receiving and registering patent information to one that actively promotes the business exploitation of intellectual property, both directly and in co-operation with a range of other agencies.

This service approach, reinforced by a requirement for the DKPTO to be self-financing, makes the expertise of DKPTO staff available to enterprises in a way that promotes an on-going adaptation to their needs. The organisation is in a strong position to develop new services, particularly those relating to IPR enforcement.

Full description

The Danish Patent and Trademark Office was established in 1894. It is the official body in Denmark responsible for granting patents and registering trademarks, utility models and designs and is the national competence centre for information on IPR and the protection of technology and know-how.

DKPTO’s mission is to help enterprises bring their ideas to fruition and in its Vision Statement it expresses the ambition to be the natural choice of business as the partner to support strategic decisions on intellectual property matters, through its professionalism, knowledge and service.

Information and Support Services

The starting point for IPR enforcement is effective intellectual asset management and access to good business intelligence. DKPTO provides a number of professional services in these areas for enterprises of all sizes, not least through extensive web-based provision. An English-language website offers an international service. Basic information products are provided for free, while more advanced and tailored services are provided at a charge.

The following outlines the core services:

On-line searching of a range of IPR databases allows information-gathering relating to patents, utility models, trademarks and designs. This service covers a large number of IPR databases and is free of charge.

Access for IPR professionals is provided via a service known as PVSonline.

An on-going commercial patent watch is provided through IPsurvey™, which allows enterprises to keep up-to-date with the most recent developments in their particular field of technology and also to identify potential business partners or gather information on competitors. The information collected is delivered regularly to the client’s desktop.

Services specifically tailored to individual clients make use of the expertise of DKPTO staff and cover novelty analysis, validity analysis, technical state-of-art analysis, and clearance investigation.

IPscore ® is an on-line tool that helps enterprises in their development of IP-management, allowing them to progress through a thorough evaluation of their patent and technological development projects, with different sections identifying the relative strength of various strategic, technological, market and finance factors.

It is also possible to file trademark applications on-line.

All this provision is supported by a service centre with staff able to answer a range of questions, on-line guides and brochures and access to the DKPTO’s extensive library.

Training offered to enterprises comes in a variety of forms and there is an active programme of seminars, both at the DKPTO’s headquarters near Copenhagen and in other regions of Denmark. Training is further provided for other agencies, for instance, through each of Denmark’s 5 Growth Houses (incubators) in their regional centres. Course material can be delivered on-line or can be tailored for in-house delivery on the enterprise’s own premises.

One of the latest developments has been IP-Marketplace, which was launched in September 2007. This facility, which is available in English, provides a forum for enterprises to buy and sell patents, arrange licensing and find business partners. It provides background information on undertaking these activities and has model contracts to guide implementation.

Most recently in 2008, the DKPTO launched a free management tool, IP Response, which customers can use to test their company’s work developing intellectual property. By answering a series of questions the customer receives an electronically-generated report that provides an overview of the company’s efforts and results with suggestions on future IP work.

IPR Enforcement

The Danish Government has made the fight against piracy and counterfeiting a major priority and the topic has been included in the Government Platform from November 2007. The DKPTO provides the secretariat for a ministerial committee charged with making proposals for counter-acting piracy and counterfeiting and the DKPTO’s performance contract for 2008 specifically includes a section on this area.

DKPTO’s service orientation puts it in an excellent position to develop specific provision for enforcement, in line with the recommendations of the ministerial committee. This process will be assisted by the nature of the role of the DKPTO in the IP-Base network, where staff have a particular responsibility for enforcement matters.

Co-operation with Other Organisations

Co-operation in the delivery of services includes close work with the Danish Technological Institute, with innovation centres and increasingly with universities and business schools. It also includes co-operation with private sector providers of legal and business advice (the DKPTO’s status as a public organisation restricts it from competing in the area of business advice with private providers).

Two ‘IP- Dialog’ groups, with enterprise representatives, meet to discuss IP policy and the DKPTO’s services. One is concerned with patents and utility models - the other with trademarks and design.

Transferability & Performance

DKPTO has some 240 staff in total and there is a budget for 2008 of some 200 million kroner (€ 27 million) of which 24.4 million kroner (€ 3.26 milllion) are devoted to information and support. DKPTO is self-financing, receiving no subsidy from the Danish government.

A number of instruments and quality assurance mechanisms are in place to further increase efficiency and service quality. Customer satisfaction, response time and delivery time are benchmarked and analysed to improve performance and specific targets are set out in the performance contract.

In delivering its programme of services, the DKPTO has a rolling performance contract with the responsible government department, the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. The contract sets out the aims and corresponding targets for the DKPTO for the current and subsequent years. Among these aims, the provision and development of support services figure as strategic objectives, in a context that emphasises the market-orientation of the information and support services and their openness to international competition. The aim is to encourage enterprises to use the agency’s services on a competitive basis and this, it is recognised, requires a continuous adaptation of the DKPTO’s information and support products.

In the current performance contract (2008), targets include increasing the sale of competitive information products by between 15 and 20% (depending on the area), improving on the previous year’s user satisfaction rating and, specifically, achieving a situation where less than 5% of services provided are deemed unsatisfactory by clients.

In addition to DKPTO’s self-evaluation, the benchmarking report of the Austrian Institute for SME Research (KMFA) on support services for SMEs in the field of IPR rated the services of the DKPTO highly, citing definite evidence of additionality.

Further information

Web site:

Contact details:

The Danish Patent and Trademark Office

Helgeshoej Allé 81

2630 Taastrup

Denmark

Tel: +45 43 50 80 00

E-mail: pvs@dkpto.dk

Easy IPR Access (FI)

Top

Title of case

Providing Easy Access: the integration of assistance for IP management and enforcement with general business support

Organisations

The Finnish National Board of Patents and Registration

The Foundation for Finnish Inventions

TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation

The T&E Centres (Employment & Economic Development Centres)

IPR Expert Group Recommendation

Support service provision should be co-ordinated nationally, with local access to IPR information, advice and IP management training being provided by the established business support organisations, in close co-operation with specialist IP agencies.

Areas that the case illustrates

  • Broadly-based access to IPR support for SMEs
  • Integration with specialist IP information and advice
  • Integration with innovation support

The Finnish services relate to:

  • Patents
  • Utility models
  • Trademarks
  • Designs
  • Copyright

Brief description

Like most other countries, Finland has a range of business support agencies, each with differing functions but all of them aiming to support SMEs in their business development. The IPR Expert Group has emphasised the need to provide access to specialist IPR services through locally available support organisations.

Finlandhas taken steps to ensure the effective integration of all forms of business support and this approach has been applied to the provision of support for Intellectual Property management and enforcement. Key to this has been the co-ordination of the services of specialised IP agencies with those of the T&E Centres (Employment & Economic Development Centres), which are the first-line support agencies for enterprises located across the country.

Full description

Finland'sT&E Centres provide a regional framework for business support. They were created by bringing together in 15 regional centres the previously separate services of a number of ministries (Trade and Industry, Labour, Agriculture and Forestry) with the explicit intention of providing a regional One-stop-shop.

T&E Centres are tasked with the promotion of business, employment and rural vitality within their region, through the provision of advisory, training, development and financing services. Their Business and Entrepreneurship sections provide local access to a wide range of services for enterprises at various stages of their development, with low-cost and practical tools and various company-specific development programmes enabling companies to enhance their competitiveness. T&E Centres also provide training programmes covering a variety of subjects.

An example of type of service package provided is TuoteStart: a Programme for the development of product and service ideas. This service helps entrepreneurs to refine new and early-stage product and service ideas, launch product development projects and carry through ideas and innovations into commercial products and a profitable business. TuoteStart is available for SMEs in a range of industries and at various stages of their development and consists of a consultancy programme tailored to the customer’s needs of 1–4 days duration - depending on the project's nature and requirements.

Through the T&E Centres, enterprises and potential entrepreneurs are then able to access more specialised services in ways that are described in the following sections.

Integration with Innovation Programmes

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, is the main government organisation for research and technological development in Finland. It especially promotes innovative, risk-intensive projects and channels funding and expert services to research, development and innovation projects run by companies, research institutes, and universities.

Tekes employs 290 people centrally and a further 80 technology development experts in the regional T&E Centres. Each year, Tekes has some 3000 company clients and 50 universities, higher education institutions and research centres.

Strategic priorities are established in key centres for science, technology and innovation and through Tekes National Programmes, which provide a process for creating nationally significant innovation action lines and co-ordinating the large group of actors that are involved in delivering them.

National Programmes consist of research and development projects and other activities in enterprises and research organisations that promote the development of business competence, networking, regional impact, internationalisation and the dissemination of results especially to SMEs. The development and management of intellectual property, together with the enforcement of IPRs represent significant elements within the overall innovation strategy.

Integration of IP Support

As well as providing the traditional registration services for patents, utility models, trademarks and registered designs and the related information and advice services, the National Board of Patents and Registration in Finland (NBPRF), also provides various support services to innovators, especially (although not exclusively at a regional level) through the T&E Centres. These, in turn offer local access to patent-related information material and initial advice and the forms, price lists and brochures of the NBPRF.

The Foundation for Finnish Inventions acts as a particular focus for the development of IPR. It is a private foundation - with funding from the Ministry of Employment and Economy - that gives support and advice to inventors: private individuals, university researchers and micro companies. The evaluation of inventions and advice on their protection are a core part of the support provided, along with guidance on product development and marketing, including the building and testing of prototypes, and access to funds, both directly from the Foundation and from third parties. Services cover a wide range of registrable IPR (patents, trademarks, designs), non-registrable IPR (e.g., copyright) and the appropriate strategies for protecting intellectual assets. Where appropriate, legal assistance is provided with licensing arrangements and there is access to the services of patent attorneys.

The activities of the Foundation are confidential, and the services are free of charge.

The NBPRF, the Foundation and the T&E Centres co-operate to employ ‘innovation agents’ who work in each of the regional T&E Centres to promote innovation and the technical and commercial exploitation of inventions. They provide advice to inventors on patenting and industrial property management, applying for funding and the marketing of products. These agencies also work with universities and with higher education, again with innovation agents placed in these institutions, promoting innovation and the technical and commercial exploitation of inventions - in this case, arising from academic research. Again advice on patenting and industrial property management form part of the support provided and this increasingly includes legal advice on contractual matters and enforcement.

Overall then, it can be seen that the Finnish support agencies achieve an exemplary balance in the provision of specialised advice and support that is at the same time accessible on a broad basis across the country through general business support agencies. Furthermore support on IPR matters is well integrated into the support of innovation, presenting a coherent and co-ordinated service for existing and potential enterprises.

Transferability & Performance

The principles illustrated by this case study concerning the effective integration of all forms of business support are clear and straightforward; the actual application, however, very much depends on the institutional circumstances of each country. It is particularly important, then, that there is effective monitoring of progress with integration plans and rigorous evaluation. An evaluation culture is evident in all of the organisations referred to in this case study and a formal evaluation of the performance and effectiveness of the Foundation for Finnish Inventions’ Network of Invention was conducted by consultants for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2006. This commended the Foundation's advice and evaluation services, but recommended further integration with other service providers in order to cover the range of innovation support needed by enterprises.

Further information

Web site:

Innovation Protection Programme (AT)

Title of case

The Innovation Protection Programme of the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS)

Organisation

The Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS)

IPR Expert Group Recommendations

Effective enforcement by businesses has to begin with proper IP management;

Intellectual Asset Management has to be a core part of the promotion of innovation. Innovation agencies and innovation support programmes have to make effective provision for IPR enforcement;

There should be better co-ordination and a more consistent development of enforcement services in third countries;

A degree of experimentation ought to be encouraged and best practice exchanged.

Areas that the case illustrates

  • SME competence building
  • Intellectual asset management
  • The provision of dedicated services
  • Special provision in 3rd countries
  • Integration with innovation support
  • Integration with general business support

The AWS services relate to:

  • Intellectual Assets
  • Trade Secrets,
  • Licensing & Confidentiality Agreements
  • All forms of Intellectual Property

Brief description:

AWS’ Innovation Protection Programme arises from its core work of supporting innovation among Austrian enterprises and provides an example of enforcement work being well integrated into the support of the enterprises throughout the innovation cycle. AWS’ services in this area, and particularly those in third countries, are themselves innovative and are helping to define new types of enforcement support.

Full description

Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS) is a state-owned bank specifically geared to supporting

small and medium enterprises. The main aim of AWS is to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic client companies and to secure Austrian jobs on a long-term basis. AWS has a staff of about 230 and included in its provision is a series of technology and innovation services. In fact, AWS is the largest Austrian provider of services for evaluating and financing technological inventions.

The Innovation Protection Programme (IPP) was established in 2006 as a response to the needs of SMEs in relation to the international protection of their intellectual property.

Through the IPP, AWS provides its clients both with funding for IPR protection in emerging markets and with regional expertise. “Emerging markets” are defined as all non-OECD member countries, though the emphasis is on China, India, and Russia. Fluent speakers of Mandarin and Russian provide regional and legal knowledge, both through the Vienna headquarters and the Shanghai branch office.

IPP Services

AWS is of the view that it is important, through training, to raise IPR awareness among Austrian entrepreneurs and to help them to establish and manage their IPR portfolios. These actions are seen as essential prerequisites of effective enforcement and form part of the programme. From this basis, IPP then provides risk assessment, monitoring and investigation of infringements and support for legal and administrative action in complex environments such as China, India, and Russia. Lobbying governments in target countries is important “background activity”, behind the scenes.

AWS decides the degree of its involvement in a given case according to the prospects of success, the economic importance of the infringement to the company in question and to the national economy, and the degree to which the case can serve as an example.

Technology audits are one of the instruments used for risk assessment: experts conduct audits tailored to the specific needs of an enterprise, assess the situation of the product and recommend a comprehensive strategy for IPR protection and enforcement all along the value chain. Mediation has also been used effectively, especially in cases of copyright infringement.

AWS has built up a network of specialized lawyers in the IP field in China, India, and Russia. Because of the larger business volume expected, this has enabled AWS to offer economies of scale to clients in some cases, through discounted “flat rate” payments for patent filings etc.

In 2007, a typical enforcement case would include:

  • Registration of patents, trademarks etc., partly funded via IPP;
  • Infringement monitoring;
  • Sending “cease and desist” letters to IPR infringers;
  • Support for the client in obtaining enforcement measures from courts and administrative bodies;
  • Actively organising the seizure of offending goods at trade fairs;
  • Strengthening the legitimate rights’ holder’s legal position by filing additional rights and pleas for annulment of fraudulent IPR registrations.

About 25% of all Austrian companies who have registered their IPR in China in 2007 received some form of support from AWS.

In providing its services, AWS currently follows the EU’s SME or “de minimis” rules, but there are plans to enlarge its base in line with the “Community Framework for State Aid for Research and Development and Innovation”.

Other Activities

In addition to its training provision for enterprises, AWS provides regular training for Austrian enforcement agencies, helping to raise their awareness of SME issues in the IPR area.

Co-operating with other agencies is an important part of the way that AWS works. It has close links with overseas branches of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich) known as AWO (Außenwirtschaftsorganisationen), which are accredited as part of the local embassy or consulate. Co-operation includes exchanging business information, mutual referral of clients, organising joint training events, and co-ordinating support mechanisms so as to ensure maximum efficiency.

The Shanghai office maintains regular exchanges with the local AWO and various other business organisations there (EU Cham etc.), while the IPP programme staff in Vienna are also actively involved in several EU projects. These include a transatlantic IPR project for policy alignment, and a project to strengthen companies’ management competence. Finally, IPP is well integrated into the Austrian partners of the Enterprise Europe Network and acts as a subcontractor to them.

Transferability & Performance

The Austrian Ministry of Commerce evaluates the performance of AWS at several levels; with regard to the SME support system as a whole, institutes such as KMU-Forschung and Technopolis have carried out studies; the first external audit of the IPP itself which will be coordinated by Joanneum Research (Graz) is expected to be finalised during 2009. As an indication of take-up, AWS organised 26 seminars, workshops and similar events in 2007 and these were attended by 1,300 people.

Further information

Web site:

Contact details:

Dipl. -Ing. Dr. Georg Buchtela

Head of Intellectual Property Management

Austria Wirtschaftsservice | ERP-Fonds

Ungargasse 37, 1030 Wien

Tel.: +43 (1) 501 75 - 551

Mail: g.buchtela@awsg.at



Technology Watch Service (LU)

Title of case

The Technology Watch Service of the Henri Tudor Public Research Centre, Luxembourg

Organisation

The Henri Tudor Public Research Centre, Luxembourg

IPR Expert Group Recommendations

Effective enforcement by businesses has to begin with proper IP management;

Intellectual Asset Management has to be a core part of the promotion of innovation. Innovation agencies and innovation support programmes have to make effective provision for IPR enforcement;

Where not currently in place, a common Intellectual Property service has to be developed.

Areas that the case illustrates

  • SME competence building
  • Intellectual asset management
  • The provision of dedicated services
  • Integration with innovation support
  • Integration with general business support

The CVT’s services relate to:

  • Intellectual Assets
  • All forms of Intellectual Property

Brief description

Good business intelligence is an essential support to an active policy of IPR enforcement. The Technology Watch service offered by a dedicated department within the Henri Tudor Public Research Centre in Luxembourg both provides a service for SMEs based on a systematic exploitation of business and technical information sources and also assists them to develop their own capabilities in this area. The service is well integrated into more general IPR and innovation support.

Full description

The Technology Watch Centre within the Henri Tudor Public Research Centre in Luxembourg (Centre de Veille Technologique (CVT) – a department of the Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor CRP-HT) is part-funded by the Luxembourg Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade and aims to support the effective management of innovatory projects by assisting enterprises with critical information throughout the life-cycle of their products.

A team of business information specialists provides client enterprises with tailored information products, including packages delivered on a regular basis. Depending on their situation the information products can contain information on current developments in relevant scientific and technological fields, intelligence on developments in markets and among competitors and the details of public policy developments, such as new regulations or standards. The scope of the service, therefore, extends significantly beyond technological issues to cover market intelligence and other important aspects of the environment in which business is conducted.

The research that generates the information is conducted according to a strategy previously agreed with the client and can include database-searches in specialized sources, e.g. patents, scientific publications, standards, and web searches. Information-research and subsequent information-analysis is performed by more or less automated processes (automated web-searches, bibliometric and semantic analysis) and the information may be presented to the clients in standardized templates or in a form tailored to the needs of the company.

These services provide essential input for the planning of new R&D activities, by providing business intelligence on how technologies are evolving and on how they can be exploited, further developed and protected, involving all the relevant parties. They prompt SMEs to take good care of existing knowledge and help prevent them from infringing third party rights. The knowledge gained in using these services is also important for defining IP-strategies, for developing effective management of IPR and establishing the basis for efficient enforcement.

In addition, the Centre provides assistance to enterprises in further developing a ‘competitive intelligence’ competence within their management structures. This assistance is delivered primarily through training seminars or tailored consultancy. In this way, the service helps the enterprise to make best use of the information provided and also contributes to the general strengthening of its management capabilities.

Integration with Other Services

Although this service is offered to any innovating enterprise, the particular application in the management and defence of intellectual property rights is clear. In this respect, the Technology Watch service is well integrated into a series of other services that support the development and protection of IPR, including (but not limited to) the classic services relating to the development of industrial property – patents, trademarks and related areas. These begin with information services – preliminary searches, anteriority, patents in similar areas, up-dating services etc – and extend to publications and guides on intellectual property in its widest sense and general innovation support, in the form of training on business planning, financial management etc. Special provision is made for the IP needs of business start-ups.

The delivery of this broader range of services comes in ways that are adapted to the circumstances of smaller enterprises. For instance, a dedicated publication LIIP – Linking Innovation and Industrial Property- , developed as part of an EU project, provides orientation for IPR beginners by offering “10 pragmatic recommendations for a better integration of IP in your business”. The guide goes on to provide brief descriptions of the different forms of IPR, guidelines on which IP protection instrument to chose under certain circumstances and tips on how to enforce IP rights.

An e-learning course of 18 modules - DIPS (Distance learning applied to enhance the introduction of IP into management Strategies of SMEs), which is specially adapted to the needs of SME managers, provides enterprises with the tools for a more systematic approach to introducing IP management into their business strategy.

In addition, of course, counselling services provide one-to-one engagement on IPR matters and regular training sessions are organised. Services are priced to cover costs. Specific services (provided on a one to one basis ) are priced at commercial rates. Awareness creation and general information services are free of charge.

The Technology Watch services are, therefore, well situated within a service portfolio that offers extensive support for the management of IPR of all kinds. Furthermore, this set of services is itself well integrated into the broader promotion of innovation that is the central objective of the Henri Tudor Public Research Centre. As such, the service has shows a number of elements of the good practice that leads to effective business support.

Transferability & Performance

A well-qualified and dedicated professional team is important to the success of CVT’s services, along with a well-judged pricing policy.

8 - 12 persons work in the Centre and half the staff are dedicated to SME services and training activities. CVT's standardised information products are based on desk research that can take from half a day to 4 working days and this work is executed by highly qualified and skilled information analysts. Staff working on SME services have a University-degree in a Scientific or Engineering field and a supplementary specialisation in information sciences (from Universities that have diplomas in competitive intelligence, technology watch etc). Customer relations and marketing is also a very important function in CVT.

Costs for standardised information-products range from 500 to 3200 €. However, in a lot of cases services have to be tailored to the specific needs of the companies and this leads to prices that go beyond the indicated amounts.

CRP Henri Tudor’s ISO 9001(2000) certification for the management of innovation projects and for providing innovation services covers the services described in this case study. In a recently signed (2008) performance contract between CRP Henri Tudor and the State of Luxembourg, key performance indicators (KPI) have been defined in quantitative terms. Among the key indicators there is a commitment on the part of CVT to deliver a defined service target (revenue on contacts) and to contribute to the scientific output of the research centre (in the form of publications in papers and conferences). An ex-post evaluation will be carried out after the end of the current CP-period (2010). The Benchmarking study by the Austrian Institute for SME Research rated the services highly, reporting high levels of user satisfaction and additionality.

Further information

Web site:

Contact details:

Dr Serge Quazzotti

Chargé de direction

Centre de Veille Technologique (CVT)

Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor

29, avenue John F. Kennedy

L-1855 Luxembourg-Kirchberg

Tel: +352 42 59 91 410

Fax : +352 42 59 91 777

Mail: serge.quazzotti@tudor.lu



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Innovaccess is a constituent part of the IP Awareness and Enforcement: Modular Based Actions for SMEs project (IPeuropAware) 
which is co-financed by the CIP Programme, DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission
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