The eMARKS project has reached its official end on February 28th, 2009.
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The eMARKS Final Workshop with title “IT and Enforcement of IPR within the Knowledge Society” which took place in Lisbon, Portugal on February 12th, 2009 completed successfully.
The eMARKS Final Workshop with title "IT and Enforcement of IPR within the Knowledge Society" will take place in Lisbon, Portugal on February 12th, 2009. This much awaited event boasts presentations from: the Portuguese Customs which will present on current counterfeiting methods, the Chamber of Commerce of Marseille will present the importance of IPR search tools for SMEs and the Portuguese Intellectual Property Office will give a survey of current IPR search methods. During the second half of the day, the eMARKS project coordinator will provide and overview of the eMARKS service and how it can help address the IPR search needs of SMEs, IPR experts, Customs and Intellectual Property Offices. The program of the day can be found here. Through these information sessions, the organizers hope to bring together industry stakeholders with eMARKS consortium members to discuss the value of an IPR search service from their perspective and exchange views on the system.
The International Workshop on "IPR, Strategy & IP Search Practices" held on November 28th, 2008 in Athens, Greece was completed with great success. The workshop sought to explore the strategic role of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the global information society and highlight the importance of the effective IPR protection which promotes innovation and ultimate economic performance.
The eMARKS Workshop brought together 46 innovators in large or medium-sized companies with IPR experts such as lawyers and IPR professionals and other stakeholders in the area of IPR in order to share their views and communicate their experience in the field. AIT’s Mrs. Zoulovits started the discussion by seting the context of the IPRs CHALLENGE IN THE EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE BASED ECONOMY. Mrs. Mouzaki and Mourkou from Kostakopoulos & Partners Law firm explored the legal aspects of IPR protection. Mrs. Galanopoulou from Microsoft spoke on the real value of IPRs. While, Mrs. Vadasz from the Hungarian Patent Office presented the European landscape of online and offline Trademark search services. Dr. Tzortzopoulos from INTRACOM IT services extended the idea of search in legal information. The workshop closed with the presentation of the EC founded eTEN eMARKS project and the solution it offers in the area of IPR search presented by Mr. Athanasiadis of INTRASOFT Interanational SA, the Coordinator of eMARKS project.
The 1st trials phase has been completed successfully. More than 70 respondents in 6 countries answered questions regarding Intellectual Property Rights search. The information collected ranges from increasing the understanding of the potential customers and evaluating the service against the adaption factors to substantiating investment and revenue forecasting figures. The primary evaluation instrument was a self administered questionnaire augmented with face-to-face communication with facilitators. At this time, the results have been collected and compiled. The complete report outlining the evaluation findings is expected at the end of August, 2008, even though initial results are available.
Despite grey areas revealed in the response analysis of the questionnaires a number of conclusions available convey a positive message regarding service acceptance. Indicatively 50% of all respondents expressed interest in the purchase of the eMAGE service, hence, validating its value proposition. Moreover an additional 25% would pay for the service, if certain modifications were made. Moreover, the trials revealed the true customer of the service, allowing the partners to focus future efforts.
Finally, the project is waiting for the final evaluation report to be completed in order to plan the next phase of trials. The consortium will attempt to rectify past problems and assess the improvements made to the service. Moreover, this second phase of evaluation will illuminate the grey areas which appeared in the 1st evaluation phase.
The eMARKS Mid Term Workshop was held in Vienna, Austria on June 19th, 2008. The eMARKS project was presented along with its partners and its overall objectives. General advantages of the eMAGE service and special benefits for participants in the trials were highlighted. The second part of the event was dedicated entirely to the eMAGE search tool where the audience could follow the service’s features from registration to the customization of the search interface.
All participants were invited for lunch in the on-site cafeteria and had time to discuss open questions along with food and drinks. After the break the external expert, Mr Knut Wimberger from the AWS, Austria Wirtschafts Service provided an insight into IPR in China. AWS is a bank owned by the Republic of Austria with the focus on financial and service support of investment projects of Austrian companies in Austria and abroad. In this context AWS pays attention to IPR protection in emerging markets such as China. In his presentation Mr. Wimberger gave some examples of counterfeits of IPR. These infringements of well known trademarks and designs committed - among others - by Chinese companies closed the circle to eMARKS and the eMAGE search tool; using such a system during the lifecycle of an IPR helps to reveal counterfeits and to set steps for further legal action.
The day closed with participants trying out the eMARE search service. By means of various pre-selected examples for trademarks and designs the search possibilities were explained and the results discussed. Following the brief training session workshop participants made free use of the service which they evaluated. The project partners present provided support and assistance when necessary. Comments collected revealed a number of issues with the service which were forwarded to the technical partners for resolution. The session ended with a discussion of results and a series of dos and don’ts in the search queries.
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