Elements of good practice for providers of publicly funded patent information services for SMEs – Selected and amended results of a benchmarking exercise

This paper describes key issues relating to the performance and challenges of publicly funded patent information services in the EU-27. The results are to a large extent rooted in a wider benchmarking analysis carried out on behalf of the European Commission as part of its ‘PRO INNO Europe activities’ the aim of which was to identify and benchmark all available IP-related support services in Europe and a number of overseas countries. For this paper, the relevant findings of the benchmarking study have been amended with an additional literature review and with an outline of the tool of semantic patent analysis. It is found that the competence of the operating staff, easy identification/visibility and timely delivery are among the most significant quality aspects from the point of view of the SMEs, while the geographical proximity of the SMEs to the service premises is a factor of less importance. Information needs of SMEs extend well beyond technical information on patents, and include interpretative help for search results but also IP management questions for decisions on why to use particular IP protection instruments in specific circumstances. The method of semantic patent analysis is described as one possible future option to extend the service activities of relevant information centres. However, provisions must be made in the governance of the (new and/or extended) services, and the reasoning for the need of the offerings should point to clear cases of market failure in order to avoid conflict with the private service sector.