Successful IP pre-diagnosis seminar in Budapest 3-4 April 2019

A successful seminar was organised in Budapest by the European Patent Office (EPO) in co-operation with the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) on 3rd and 4th April 2019, entitled IP pre-diagnosis ‒ enhancing knowledge and practice.

IP pre-diagnosis has an ever-growing importance for SMEs to become competitive in the knowledge-based economy of our times. However, only a few SMEs avail themselves of this service offered by national IP offices and PATLIB centres or TechnologyTransfer Offices (TTOs).

The seminar aimed at training service providers of national offices how to encourage SMEs more effectively to get involved in IP pre-diagnosis in order not to miss out on substantial growth and development opportunities. Besides the plenary sessions, the participants worked in groups to elaborate on a fictional case study of a successful Hungarian company. Considerable time was devoted to situational exercises, where the participants took on the role of the company’s CEO and that of the IPD service provider. After the group work, Gábor Németh, Vice-President for Legal Affairs of HIPO held a presentation on co-operation with TTOs and business intermediaries in delivering the IP pre-diagnosis, which was followed by a presentation of Katarina Kubicek, country co-ordinator of the EPO, on best practices and support after an IP pre-diagnosis.

This was the fifth event in a series on the EPO’s IP pre-diagnosis service, which ended with great success in Budapest.