Uit Europees onderzoek blijkt dat ruim 90% van de ondernemers geen geregistreerde intellectuele eigendomsrechten heeft. Daarom lanceerden vijf Belgische en Nederlandse overheidsorganisaties op 26 april 2022 - Werelddag van de intellectuele eigendom - voor het eerst een nieuw gemeenschappelijk digitaal platform voor intellectuele eigendomsrechten. Het platform Create, Protect & Benefit informeert de meer dan drie miljoen kmo´s in de Benelux over het belang en de meerwaarde van intellectuele eigendom. (Lees meer op VLAIO)

The European Patent Office (EPO) received 188 600 applications in 2021, up 4.5% on the previous year and the highest number to date. The number of patent applications - an early indicator of companies' investments in research and development - increased in nine of the top ten most patent-active fields of technology, with digital communication and computer technology posting the strongest growth. "The strong demand for patents last year shows that innovation has remained robust," said EPO President António Campinos. "It highlights the creativity and resilience of innovators in Europe and worldwide. They have filed higher numbers of patent applications and the strong growth in digital technologies provides compelling evidence of the digital transformation taking place across all sectors and industries," he said.

Legal Board of Appeal rules that an inventor must be human, dismissing the appeals on the two DABUS applications which named an Artificial Intelligence as the inventor.

The Legal Board of Appeal confirmed the decisions of the Receiving Section of the European Patent Office to refuse the applications  in which an artificial intelligence system called DABUS was designated as inventor in the application forms. The Legal Board of Appeal also refused the auxiliary request according to which no person had been identified as inventor but merely a natural person was indicated to have "the right to the European Patent by virtue of being the owner and creator of" the artificial intelligence system DABUS.

Read more at EPO news

The EPO has produced a series of case studies on European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which are leveraging the power of patents and other IP rights to achieve business success.

SMEs from different countries, operating in different industries and technology sectors, were interviewed about their IP strategies and underlying business models. The resulting case studies illustrate how new and established SMEs have developed the IP management capabilities they need, and how they are using IP to their advantage.

Read more at EPO - SME case studies