Wednesday, April 30, 2008

IPR MSMEs and Innovations

The move towards a well knowledge networked society may happen through pro patent ecosystem. MSME clusters are the perfect place for innovations to happen. There are number of studies showing that there is direct relationship between IPR, innovations and MSME survival. Recently a number initiatives on geographical indications (GI) have been initiated in India. Such GI registration may prove helpful if some kind of enforcement system is put in place.

Unfortunately the most of MSME, enterprises are not in a position to take advantage of their Intellectual Property due to their size constraints. The current market situation is not very conducive for MSME innovation to happen. It is therefore necessary to provide a strong policy support for such initiatives. Austrian Institute of SME research has come out with avery interesting piece of work on " Benchmarking National and Regional Support Services for SMEs in the Field of Intellectual and Industrial Property" highlighting theoretical issues on SME patenting and case studies. The full report is available at http://www.proinno-europe.eu/admin/uploaded_documents/Benchmarking-Report-SME.pdf

1 comment:

Sapien Nova said...

As a matter of fact IPR and innovations are the two most important factors ensuring SME survival. If one looks at developed economies, we can see that SMEs outperform large firms in terms on innovation. This is what creates a lasting competitive advantage for them. If we look at Indian SMEs, it is rare to see something like this happening. Most Indian SMEs (and even clusters) exist due to price advantages arising out of the lax IP enforcement (copycat produts) or price differences arising out from lower labour costs (Tirupur is a prime example) or even unethical practices (child labor in ludhiana).

It is actually ironic that were we to bring SMEs into the mainstream many of these SMEs will disappear.

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