A crammed programme of 15 detailed seminars at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium revealed a kaleidoscope of global IP activity in the SME space, with patents riding high on the agenda. A collaborative atmosphere prevailed, with Baroness Morgan of Drefelin – IP minister at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) – setting the tone in her introductory speech. 'In the UK,' she said, 'we've found that having a dedicated minister for intellectual property has really allowed us to create some political focus … in my experience, it's now part of reality that knowledge is fast becoming an economic bedrock. IP should be about how value can be created by people working together. It shouldn't conjure up stories of litigation.'

Partnership potential
Baroness Morgan pointed to the new framework for UK manufacturers – launched on 8 September by DIUS secretary, John Denham and prime minister, Gordon Brown – as evidence of the UK's commitment. The framework contains a detailed refresher of IP policy, enshrined via competitive tax plans, committing the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) to guidelines for reducing delays on patent filings. This refresher has been developed with an eye to emerging markets, particularly SMEs – promising to make IP information more accessible to start-ups and highlight the benefits of IP competence. Another major theme in the Baroness's address was heightened interest in the Creative Commons from multinationals, offering SMEs a wealth of partnership potential that would not have existed five years ago. She used the example of Procter and Gamble's Connect + Develop initiative to demonstrate how corporations are willing to tie up with SMEs by advertising their product needs as a means of making contact. And she was joined by Dr Guriqbal Singh, director of WIPO's SME Division, in acknowledging the importance of branding as a means of lowering the transaction costs of bringing patented products to market.

European developments were notably busy. Hubert Rothe - head of industrial property publications at the German patent office – and Dr Agnieska Turynska of the University of Alicante, introduced work they have done to promote IP for SMEs through the sites, Innovaccess.eu and ipr-helpdesk.org. Part of a coordinated IP awareness and enforcement effort, the projects are aiming to provide information to help European SMEs achieve higher tangible results from intangible assets by 2010, building up their economic potential. Innovaccess will continue to weave together SME programmes from Europe's national patent offices; meanwhile, the University of Alicante will support ipr-helpdesk with the release of four handbooks on IP registration for the textiles, footwear and furnishing industries – sectors that often lack IP initiative at SME level. Dr Turynska is working with groups such as the European Federation of Furniture Retailers (FENA) and the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) to ensure that the handbooks will enhance their audience's grasp of patentable subject matter and relevant processes. In tandem with these schemes, individual patent offices are taking important steps. Patricia Garcia-Escudero Marquez, head of the Spanish PTO's dissemination unit, revealed that her office will create an internal centre to coordinate SME policy, coupled with an SME microsite targeted at entrepreneurs and their associates.

Market forces
Entrepreneurship formed the cornerstone of perhaps the most ambitious speech of the day, delivered by Mark Coticchia – vice-president for research and technology at Ohio's Case Western Reserve University. Mr Coticchia outlined his role in harnessing capital and talent back in 2001 to whip the university's tired technology transfer programme into an array of lucrative biotech spin-offs. Where his talk differed from those of his predecessors was in its deep focus on commerce – his message being: 'Don't just focus on patents, focus on the marketplace.' Responding to a question on the perceived urgency of national-phase filing, Mr Coticchia portrayed the commercial reality as more of an exercise in patience. 'In biotech, we place more bets on the table than science and engineering,' he said. 'But it is important to bring in as many researchers as possible early on and listen to what they're saying about what's being looked at in the field. Decisions to patent research results can be paused and revisited according to market demands.'

WIPO, for its part, informed delegates that 2009 will see the release of two new books in its series of IP guides for SMEs: In Confidence: An Introduction to Trade Secrets, and Open Innovation: An Introduction to Intellectual Asset Strategies. Following WIPO's superb organisation of the forum, the books are set to become invaluable resources for IP groups as they work to steer SMEs to a commercially wiser future.