How to create an effective intellectual property portfolio for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? What are the opportunities for SMEs to collaborate with academic and research institutions? Finally, how can SMEs choose the best intellectual property strategy?

These issues were discussed at the International Conference on Intellectual Property Strategy for SMEs in a Competitive Marketplace held in Warsaw, Poland.

Organizers: the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland with the support of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the EU IP Office (EUIPO).

The conference brought together the Directors of the European and international IP institutions, national IP offices of the EU member states, academia and science, business and start-ups. The Ukrainian IP Office was represented at the international conference by the First Deputy Director Bogdan Paduchak.

According to him, participation in such a highly representative event is important as it allows better understanding the needs of small and medium-sized businesses in the IP field and helps to develop effective strategies to support entrepreneurs.

“This also opens up opportunities for deepening cooperation with international partners, establishing communication with European specialized IP institutions and research institutions to facilitate the process of European integration and country’s intellectual and innovative environment development”, – Bogdan Paduchak stated.

During the working visit to Poland, the First Deputy Director of the IP Office met with Ms. Mariana Karepova, European and International Affairs and Principal Advisor to the President, European Patent Office, to discuss actual issues of bilateral cooperation in the IP sphere and approximation of practices of the national and European offices.

Bogdan Paduchak expressed his gratitude for the patent search tools provided by the EPO and free advanced training courses from the EPO Academy for national patent examiners. He informed the EPO representative about the progress in the drafting of new rules for patent examination and guidelines for inventions and utility models.

In addition, they discussed the continuation of the EU acquis implementation in the field of patent law, the perspectives of practices approximation, as well as the state of unitary patent system functioning and the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court, which are on the agenda of discussions with the European Commission.

A specific discussion topic was the development of joint measures to support the professional IP community, in particular through access to EPO’s training and educational resources.

Bogdan Paduchak also outlined the next steps of Ukraine, including the implementation of Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions, updating the guidelines for examination (taking into account the EPO recommendations), improving the procedure for issuing certificates of additional protection, etc.

Photo: Patent Office of the Republic of Poland

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