Re:[Patents] OECD survey

[Peter Kuhm <peter.kuhm@plus.at>]

At 17:52 05.09.03 +0200, mi.ro@iol.it wrote:

>> A questionare has been posted on the Danish patentoffice website:
>> http://www.dkpto.dk/nyheder/OECD_Questionnaire-TIP.xls
>>
>Very nice! An excel questionare on the Internet. Why didn't they implement a 
>simple html form?

plain text for your convenience:

--- snip ---

OECD  <<o  OCDE

Survey on the Use and Perception of Patents in the Business Community


Dear Sir or Madame,

This survey aims at gathering information on the patenting and licensing 
behaviours of firms and the perception of businesses about the impact of 
recent evolutions in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regimes on their 
innovation strategies. It is sent to firms in most of 30 Member Countries 
of the OECD.

Aggregated results from this survey will be included in a report to be used 
to inform policy discussions at a meeting of Ministers of Science and 
Technology of the 30 OECD Member Countries that will take place in January 
2004.

A copy of the final results of the survey will be made available to 
responding firms. The results will also be used to prepare the final report 
of a broad OECD study on IPR that will inform policy discussions in 
national governments and international organisations such as WIPO.

More information on the OECD project on "IPR, innovation and economic 
performance" available at www.oecd.org/sti/ipr .

Anonymity is guaranteed thanks to the intermediary role played by the 
organisation representing the business community at the OECD, the Business 
and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC, www.biac.org ). Please send your 
response to Mrs Hanni Rosenbaum at rosenbaum@biac.org so that any 
information that could identify your company can be removed before BIAC 
forwards your response to the OECD. Please do not hesitate to contact her 
should you have any question at +33 1 42 30 09 60.

The questionnaire comprises 23 questions regarding your views on 
patent-related issues at your company.

We expect that you will not need more than 15 minutes to respond the 
questionnaire. Most of the questions are formulated to facilitate a quick 
reply by choosing from a menu.

Thank you very much for your co-operation.


GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUR COMPANY

A Location of corporate headquarters (country where decisions about IP are 
taken at your company)

B Main/primary line of business

If Other, please specify:

C Current number of employees world-wide

D Current R&D budget world-wide in USD

E How old is your company?

If your company is less than 10 years old, please reply to the questions 
below in relation to the year your company was created.


PATENTING PATTERNS

1 Has the number of patents filed annually by your company changed with 
respect to 10 years ago?

2 If your company is filing more patents now than 10 years ago, please 
indicate what has been the relative importance of the following factors for 
this trend:

2,1 An increase in the number of inventions generated at your firm

2,2 An increase in the number of patents filed by your company at each PTO 
to protect an individual invention

2,3 An increase in the number of countries in which your company seeks 
patent protection for a given invention

2,4 Other. Please specify:

3 Does your company seek patent protection now on inventions for which it 
would have been unlikely to seek patent protection 10 years ago (assuming 
they would have been patentable then)?

4 What has been the effect of the expansion of patentability to new types 
of inventions on research at your company in the fields listed below ?

4,1 Biotechnology

4,2 Software

4,3 Business Methods

5 In your experience, as compared with 10 years ago, obtaining patents at 
the following major patent offices has become:

5,1 USPTO

5,2 EPO

5,3 JPO

6 In your opinion, has the ability of patentees to enforce the rights 
conferred by patents changed in the following regions in the past 10 years ?

6,1 United States

6,2 Europe

6,3 Japan

7 Has the number of challenges related to patent infringement in which your 
company has been involved (either against or in favour of your company) 
changed with respect to 10 years ago?

8 Has the likelihood of research projects at your company being blocked 
(not started or stopped) due to patents from competitors changed with 
respect to 10 years ago?

9 Has the total cost of filing a patent (staff time, patent application 
costs, attorney fees etc) changed with respect to 10 years ago?

10 Has the average value of a patent (be it from exploiting the patented 
invention or from licensing it) changed with respect to 10 years ago?

11 Have the business risks of not patenting an individual invention (in 
terms of being imitated, in terms of another company filing a patent on the 
same invention, etc) changed with respect to 10 years ago?

12 What has been the relative importance of the following factors for your 
company&rsquo;s patenting strategy in the past 10 years?

12,1 Effect of your company's patent portfolio on the stock price of your 
company / on investor ratings

12,2 Effect of your company's patent portfolio on its bargaining power when 
negotiating alliances with other companies

12,3 More intense product market competition

12,4 Reduced entry barriers into your business (e.g. access to distribution 
networks, access to production facilities)

12,5 Potential revenues from licensing patented inventions

12,6 Changes in the cost or administrative procedures for patenting

12,7 Other. Please specify.

13 Is the information disclosed in other firms' patents useful for 
designing and implementing your company's R&amp;D strategy?

13,1 In your opinion, has the usefulness of information disclosed in 
patents changed with respect to 10 years ago?


LICENSING PATTERNS

14 Has the number of licenses your company acquires from other companies 
changed with respect to 10 years ago?

15 How important have the following objectives been in motivating changes 
to your company&rsquo;s strategy as regards licensing patents from other 
firms in the past 10 years?

15,1 To accelerate innovation processes and shorten time-to-market
        
15,2 To gain access to complementary expertise or technology
        
15,3 To substitute for internal R&D

15,4 Other. Please specify.

16 Has the likelihood of your company facing refusals to license from other 
firms changed with respect to 10 years ago?
        
17 Has the number of cross-licensing agreements your company has entered 
into with other companies in order to gain access to their inventions 
changed with respect to 10 years ago?
        
18 Has the number of licenses your company has granted to others on its 
patented inventions changed with respect  to 10 years ago?

19 Does your company face significant obstacles to licensing compared to
10 years ago?

If Yes, please identify the main obstacles to licensing.


FUTURE TRENDS
                
20 Do you expect patents to become a more important form of intellectual 
property protection to your company in the next 5 years?

Please explain briefly:
                
21 Do you expect outward licensing of your company's patented inventions to 
become more important to your company in the next 5 years?

Please explain briefly:
        
22 Do you expect inward licensing of patented inventions from other 
companies to become more important to your company in the next 5 years?

Please explain briefly:
        
23 What kind of changes to the patent system would you like to see 
implemented in the next 5 years that would improve your company's 
innovative capabilities or economic performance? 

--- snap ---