Innovation is pivotal to economic growth and societal transformation.\n The concern then is to determine the means to uphold a continuous flow \nof innovations. The patent system is one of the institutional means that\n is used as incentive to encourage individuals and firms to produce \ninnovations. It is important to study the use of the patent system by \nsmall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), partly because of their \nnumerical significance in industry and partly because of their \nimportance as a force of innovation. In this project, we will study why \nthe SMEs prefer to use or not to use the patent system and how their \ndecision impacts on their performance with IPR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We do this through\n studies of documents and in-depth interviews with decision makers \n(leaders and\/or managers) in SMEs in selected industries. The study will\n be situated in the Baltic Sea Region. We will study the experiences of \nSMEs of the patent systems and utility models in four countries: Sweden,\n Finland, Latvia and Estonia. In Sweden and Latvia only the patent \nsystem is applied. Finland and Estonia use both the patent system and \nthe utility model, a system which is expected to be more beneficial and \nattractive to the SMEs. It is interesting to compare the experiences of \nFinland and Estonia to those of Sweden and Latvia to investigate the \nextent to which SMEs are using and benefiting from the utility model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n Baltic Sea Region perspective is important due to the fact that there \nare legal differences between the Baltic countries. Some countries, such\n as Finland and Estonia, have through legislation created another IPR, \nthe utility model. The protection of utility models is mainly motivated \nby creating a protection more accessible for SMEs than patent \nprotection. Our research will highlight whether SMEs in these countries \nare benefitted from the creation of the protection of utility models \nalongside with the patent protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Innovation and entrepreneurship is one of the strongest research and education profiles of S\u00f6dert\u00f6rn University. The research project links this innovation profile to S\u00f6dert\u00f6rns Baltic Sea Region research profile. S\u00f6dert\u00f6rn can become a platform for research in intellectual property rights in the Baltic Sea Region, especially from a broader perspective than just the legal. To our knowledge there is no research on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the Baltic Sea Region at S\u00f6dert\u00f6rn at present. We plan to collaborate closely with CBEES and we have already initiated the process by submitting an application for funds to CBEES for a workshop on the patent systems and the SMEs for researchers and practitioners from the Baltic Sea region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-615","project","type-project","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n