September 13, 2007SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus Thumm1 Nikolaus Thumm Senior Economic Counsellor Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property WIPO Forum on Intellectual Property and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises WIPO Geneva, September 13 and 14, 2007 SMEs and IP in Switzerland - A new approach-

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Example: To patent or not to patent? Inventions Innovations Patented inventions Patented Innovations Get them on the market? Get them patented or not? Costs of patenting!!

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Relevance for SMEs? First Step back: Alternative Protection Measures n Secrecy n Publication n Lead time advantage n Product complexity n Embodiment intangibles n Customer relations management n ‚Open source‘ strategies Intellectual Property Rights

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Relevance for SMEs? Second Step back: What do SMEs know about IP? Knowledge about, use of IP protection No. of SMEs ? Innocent non-users Professional users Policy

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, General Hypothesis for SMEs: n SMEs have a huge innovation potential n IP rights are not sufficiently used by SMEs n SMEs often don‘t recognize the importance of IP rights for their business n SMEs are heterogeneous (‚+‘ Biotech, ‚-‘ Mechanical engineering) n Information and training services are not sufficient

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, More questions than answers: n What are the reasons for the SME IP paradox? n Is there a un-used innovation potential? n What is the role of IP with venture capital? n Are there SME specific necessities as for IP, that are not considered within the current system? n Are the existing training and information services sufficient? n Can the Government help? How? n …

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, What is the situation at present with SMEs and what should it look like ideally? PresentFuture Steering Group ? are innovative rarely use the IP System are not informed need special training... … better, special training more information lower fees less taxes... …

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Structure of the Swiss IP SME Project Swiss IP Office Steering Group Swiss SME Survey 12 Benchmarking IP Services 3 Ec. Focus Study 4 Case Studies 5 Public IP Perception New/better SME IP Services

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Objectives: n To improve the use and commercialization of intellectual property with SMEs n Increase awareness with SMEs in general n Clarify misunderstandings n Improve technological information services n Development of customer oriented services

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Swiss SME Survey SMEs in Switzerland: (contacted 7000) 1147 questionnaires: 882 Deutsch-Schweiz 187 Romandie 76 Ticino

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, The questionnaire (German/French/Italien):

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘Did your company develop over the last two years new ideas/processes/products/services? Have you been able to transpose them into a market advantage?’(n=1147)

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘Did your company develop over the last two years new ideas/processes/products/services? Have you been able to transpose them into a market advantage?’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘Do you protect these ideas/processes/products/services with patents, trade marks, design or other means’?

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘Do you protect these ideas/processes/products/services with patents, trade marks, design or other means’?

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘In case you protect ‘never’ or ‘seldom’, please explain:’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘In case you protect ‘never’ or ‘seldom’, please explain:’ Answer: ‘administrative fees are too high’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘In case you protect ‘often’ or ‘always’, please give reasons:’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘In case you protect ‘often’ or ‘always’, please give reasons:’ Answer: ‘Protection of competitors’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘In case you protect ‘often’ or ‘always’, please give reasons:’ Answer: ‘important for financing’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘As to how far should patent protection be improved?’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘As to how far should design protection be improved?’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, ‘As to how far should access to information with patents be improved?’

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Summary findings n Swiss SMEs are creative and innovative n Nutrition industry, chemistry and biotechnology are leading. n The use a IP rights by Swiss SMEs is on average low ( but higher with medium sized companies) n Many Swiss SMEs don‘t use the IP system at all. n The nutrition industry uses trade marks very actively and is satisfied with its use n The patent system is criticized for being too complicated, not to enforce and high attorney fees n Users are satisfied: pharma, biotech, chemistry, nutrition n Non-users are unsatisfied: mechanical engineering, electronics, construction n Few positive influences of intellectual property rights are mentioned: With patents the protection of competitors is predominant; with trade marks the protection of competitors and promotional reasons are predominant (especially with the nutrition industry). n SMEs have a relatively little knowledge about IP Rights, the knowledge is high with the few users of the system n With patents, especially the access to information and the office fees are criticized. Little is known about training possibilities n Very little is known about design protection n Specific problems mentioned: access to information, fees (both office and attorney fees), little knowledge about training

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, n SMEs are at the core of the innovation process n IP is often crucial in this process n Where and when: find it out! Empirical work is often required n Provide access to IP knowledge n Requires plenty of training and capacity building Lessons to learn so far

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Next project steps: Swiss SME Survey 12 Benchmarking IP Services 3 Ec. Focus Study 4 Case Studies 5 Public IP Perception New/better SME IP Services

SMEs and IP in Switzerland - Nikolaus ThummSeptember 13, Thank you!