EUR 17032 - ENFORCING SMALL FIRM'S PATENT RIGHTS

Enforcing small firms patent rights ; *#»PW^D t part of the Fifth Research Framework Programme A publication from the Innovation/SMEs programme L European Commission ENTERPRISE DC Contact: Mr M. Schmiemann Address: EUFO 2283 L-2920 LUXEMBOURG Fax: (352)43 01-32084 E-mail: manfred.schmiemann@cec.eu.int European Commission Enforcing small firms' patent rights Directorate-General for Enterprise EUR 17032 LEGAL NOTICE Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. The views in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Euro­pean Commission A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001 ISBN 92-894-0633-X © European Communities, 2001 Printed in Italy PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER Table of Contents Page Acknowledgements 7 Executive Summary 9 ObjectivesMethodologyQuestionnaire resultsCase studies 10 Recommendations1 1. Objective4 2. Methodology5 2.1 Identification of firms to be surveyed 16 2.1.1 EU-originating United States patents2.1.2 Assumptions about invention quality9 2.1.