Stakeholders of the Innovation Ecosystem

Small and medium-sized technology-driven enterprises are important to the European economy and patents are important to them as a means of securing sustainable high growth. A recent survey investigated how small and medium-sized enterprises filing European patents succeed in commercialising those of their inventions with the highest business potential. These technologies usually find their way to the market, frequently involving partnerships in Europe and beyond. However, some challenges still persist for SMEs wishing to commercialise their technology, including difficulties finding partners and managing complex negotiations, and need to be addressed. Sharing good practice, knowledge, and expertise in IP management and IP strategy can help, as can access to networking platforms.

Read the full article in les Nouvelles - Journal of the Licensing Executives Society International

Read the short version of the article in the book ‘Winning with IP'

Watch the video High growth business and patent commercialisation: Thomas Bereuter & Yann Meniere

Authors (in alphabetical order)

Watch the video "High growth business and patent commercialisation" recorded at the High-growth technology business conference 2021.

Co-operations in which know-how and resources are synergistically combined increase the chances for effective commercialisation of new technologies in international markets. Negotiations are necessary for partnering and are a kind of collaborative problem-solving. This requires soft and hard skills, as well as proper preparation. Mock negotiations are a praxis-proven way to train and empower both aspiring and experienced negotiators. LESI and the European Patent Office (EPO) have jointly developed an advanced training format combining training on IP strategy and IP management with a three-party negotiation case study about innovation management and patent transactions. Participants join negotiation teams and, in a “safe” environment, apply what they have learned and in doing so advance their soft skills. The negotiation exercise is about marketing a medical technology with an Industry 4.0 ICU console that requires a combined approach of IP, AI, GDPR, telemedicine, block chain, control of big data, patient specific customised therapy and re-use of consumables along with many other aspects.

Read the full article in les Nouvelles - Journal of the Licensing Executives Society International

Authors (in alphabetical order)

Conferences are a very traditional way to stay up-to-date in a certain field or industry but are less popular for smaller and younger enterprises and their management. The huge success of the High-Growth Business Technology Conference 2019, organised by LESI and the EPO, was based on an extensive re-engineering of how conferences ought to be delivered.
The key goals of the re-engineering were inclusion (attract IP professionals as well as high-growth business decision-makers), efficiency (minimise conference time but maximise the outcome), learning (provide original content from top speakers and trainers), implementation (ensure learnings can be applied in participants’ organisations) and networking (including enabling networking for participants who are not so networking-savvy).
The tools used to achieve the key goals were a dual-track system (one track for IP and one for business), conference and training day combination (one day of conference followed by one day of in-depth training sessions), short and crisp sessions (shorter presentations focusing on key messages), meet-the-speaker opportunities for participants, summary slides (one summary slide at the end of each session), summary videos (short summary videos of selected speakers to watch at home), speed networking (structured get-together) and IP clinics (IP specialists providing one-on-one input for participants).

Read the full article in les Nouvelles - Journal of the Licensing Executives Society International

Authors (in alphabetical order)

Find out more about Enterprise Ireland, a key actor helping Irish SMEs to implement their intellectual property strategies on the market.

Watch the video The role of IP helping SMEs and start-ups to scale

Learn about the importance of relationships and trust for technology transfers.

Watch the video IP commercialisation success

Growth as spectacular as that of BioNTech, inventor of the Covid-19 vaccine, depends on sequencing a combination of intellectual assets, says Audrey Yap in a book inspired by the EPO and LESI’s High-Growth Technology Business Initiative

Read the article in the book ‘Winning with IP’

Author