Management

The booklet on "Non-Disclosure Agreements", freely provided by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) in the Healthcheck booklet series, gives an overview on approaches to protecting confidential business information to be shared for business purposes.

NDAs are written agreements which record the conditions under which you disclose information or ideas in confidence. You are strongly advised to consider using one if you are going to disclose any information or ideas which you wish to be kept confidential.

If you are interested on how NDAs can help you, read on this booklet here and our fact sheet here. If you want to get better acquainted to the meaning of confidential business information, the European IPR Helpdesk also produced a fact sheet on it, which is downloadable here.

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Many people confuse the concepts of the ownership of intellectual property (IP) and the inventorship or authorship of creations, or sometimes they are simply not aware of their different nature. Yet, it is crucial to understand how to manage these rights as their improper handling could cause real problems, such as the validity of IP rights (IPR) granted or the risks of legal disputes.

This fact sheet aims to clarify the ownership, inventorship and authorship concepts by explaining the different characteristics and shedding some light on the way they should be dealt with in order for any person involved in the creation of intangibles to properly identify them and avoid encountering serious problems.

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The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center performed an international survey on dispute resolution in technology transactions, such as non-disclosure agreements, license agreements or R&D agreements. This survey had the main goal of assessing the current use in technology-related disputes of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods like arbitration or mediation as compared to court litigation.

According to WIPO this survey allows not only the identification of trends, but also best practices that can help intellectual property right holders in their dispute resolution strategies.

Below see some of the conclusions of this survey:

• Agreements resulting most often to disputes:

a.       disputes occurred in relation to 2% of Respondents’ technology-related agreements;

b.      among technology-related agreements, licenses most frequently give rise to disputes (25% of Respondents). R&D agreements rank second (18%) and are followed by NDAs (16%).

• Choice of Dispute Resolution Clauses:

a.       Court litigation was the most common stand-alone dispute resolution clause (32%), followed by arbitration and mediation. However, respondents generally perceived a trend towards out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms.

b.      The results show that the respondents spent more time and incurred significantly higher costs in court litigation than in arbitration and mediation.

To see all the conclusions of this survey and for further information, please click here and here.

If you need information on dispute resolution mechanism, check the fact sheet we prepared in collaboration with WIPO and which is available here.

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The European Commission has today presented a package of initiatives to make trade mark registration systems all over the European Union cheaper, quicker, more reliable and predictable. The proposed reform would improve conditions for businesses to innovate and to benefit from more effective trade mark protection against counterfeits, including fake goods in transit through the EU's territory.

As regards fees, the Commission is proposing a principle of "one-class-per-fee" that will apply both for Community trade mark applications and for national trade mark applications. This will enable any business – particularly SMEs – to apply for trade mark protection according to their actual business needs, at a cost that covers those individual needs only.

For further information, please click here and here.

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In support of European SMEs, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry is co-funding the ASEAN IPR SME Helpdesk project. This project will provide free information and services for European businesses to protect and enforce their intellectual property rights (IPR) in the ASEAN region. This will be practical, first-line, confidential advice to help you make prudent business decisions in the ten countries which form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), specifically: Brunei-Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ASEAN IPR SME Helpdesk’s free resources and services will include guides, E-learning Modules, Webinars, Training events, videos, podcasts, country IP Factsheets and a dedicated enquiry helpline – all tailored to the needs of European businesses.

To access this new free service, please click here.

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The European IPR Helpdesk is pleased to release a new case study showing a good example of an SME that has developed efficient IP strategy and management practices. The case put forward the idea that the pre-condition for successfully carrying out business activities is not only based on the mere knowledge of IP but mainly on the will of the company to properly manage its intangible asset to reap the full benefits from it.

Follow the link below and discover how!

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The European Commission has opened a public consultation regarding the revision of rules on technology transfer agreements with a view to changing the existing exemptions.

The Commission may impose rules so as to avoid companies using licensing agreements to divide up markets among themselves or to block competing technologies from entering markets. The block exemption prevents determinate technology transfer tools (e.g. patents and know-how licences) from the application of these competition law rules.

The new TTBER rules are also expected to address the functioning of “patent pools”. The Commission is inviting comments on its proposals until May 17, 2013.

For further information and to submit your contribution, please click here.

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The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) have launched in partnership with Swansea University and Intellectual Property (IP) Wales, an IP App aimed at Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to help them identify and understand how they can make IP work for them.

It contains:

• An overview of patents, trade marks, designs, copyright and Intangible Assets
• An introduction to IP as part of your business planning with some quick tips
• Links to further IP resources

The app also provides a great platform on which to view the latest news and developments in the IP world, with access to our news and Twitter feeds as well as the IP Insight online magazine.

The IP App is available to download now from the Apple store itunes and Android App store.

For further information, please click here.

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IP Panorama, a “Joint Development of E-learning Content” developed by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), has an interesting new addition on “IP Issues in Franchising”.

To access the e-learning platform, please click here.

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The European Parliament commissioned a study on the role of the Knowledge Transfer Offices within Public Research Organisations in knowledge transfer. The study analyses the practices in European institutions and compares them with international ones, especially from the USA.

To read the report in full, please click here.

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