0172-2190/82/03 0097-03 $03.00/O Pergamon International Information Corp.

Q 1982 CEC/WIPO

World Patent Information, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 97-99, 1982. Printed in Great Britain.

Development Co-operation Training Seminar at The Hague-‘Technical Information as an Aid to Industrial Development’

J. F. Me’zikes, European Patent Office, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany

Summary

The main objective of the seminar for developing country nationals, the third of which took place at The Hague in September 1981, is to provide an introduc- tion to the use of patent documents and patent office documentation centres as sources of technical infor- mation, thus promoting awareness of their potential value to users, which is all too often not appreciated.

This article describes the programme for the seminar and presents the participants’ assessment of the extent of its success.

Introduction

A third training seminar for nationals of developing

countries, organised jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the European Patent Organi- sation and the Commission of the European Com- munities, was held in the branch at The Hague of the European Patent Office from 7 to 22 September 1981.

All in all, the seminar seemed to live up to participants’ expectations. Another cause for satisfaction was the excellent co-operation between the three institutions which organised the seminar. As well as outlining these general impressions, the present study reviews the seminar under the following two aspects :

l the programme and the participants; l an assessment of the seminar by the participants.

I. The Programme and the Participants

The principal aim of the seminar at The Hague was to provide an introduction to the exploitation of technical

information contained in patent documents and all the other material stored in the documentation centres set up by the patent offices. It was therefore primarily intended for representatives of developing countries

97

with responsibilities in industry, whether they worked in the public or the private sector and whether or not they had a basic understanding of industrial property.

A. The programme The seminar programme constituted a progressive, programmed instruction course, divided into three parts :

l patent documents and their use as a source of technical information ;

l case studies ; l the role of patents in development.

(a) Part 1. In the case of participants with industrial experience but who had never used patent documents before, or only to a very limited extent, it was important to start with a very general objective, namely mastery of the technical information, as a prerequisite for any innovative process, before progressing in stages to specific applications ; this involved practical instruc- tion in the use of existing documentation-in parti- cular patent documents-which implies a knowledge ofhow to gain access to it (knowing the keys to it and in particular the principles of the International Patent Classification) and how to analyse its content (know- ing how to read a patent document and recognise its limits).

This first part of the seminar was divided into eight progressive topics interspersed with practical exercises intended to facilitate assimilation of the lectures.

Starting from the problems of technical information in general, each topic constituted a step forward in the acquisition of a practical and operative skill, i.e. a new topic could not be understood until the preceding one had been mastered. Particular attention was paid to

ensuring that each concept or new idea was clearly

defined. Participants were also provided with a gloss- ary of the principal industrial property terms, to which they could refer if necessary.

It should be noted that patents were not presented at this stage as an integrated system, having legal and

J. F. Mezieres

commercial aspects as well as forming, with other instruments, a policy of innovation, but as technical information which is available and freely accessible provided that the keys to it are known.

(b) Part 2. The case studies served to illustrate and to put into practice the topics dealt with one by one during the first part. Over a period of four days, the participants were divided into five groups to work. under supervision, on the documentation. Each group had to prepare a search report.

The following topics were considered this year : (1) Use of tropical fruits to obtain fermentation products.

Brief outline. Production of biomass, alcohol, vi- negar and other fermentation products from tropical fruits such as bananas, citrus fruits, dates, pineap- ples, coconuts, pawpaws, mangoes, persimmons and their residues.

(2) Agricultural implements for harvesting rutaceae fruits.

Brief outline. The systematic documentation con- tains information about manual devices, pneumatic equipment, tree and foliage shakers and fruit collect- ing devices used in conjunction with such shakers.

(3) Small solar-powered water pumps. Bri~fooutline. In regions subjected to intense solar radiation, this is a very practical source of energy. Simple devices using solar energy to pump water could be adapted to supply running water to rural houses and small irrigation systems. Technical infor- mation about small solar-powered water pumps is required.

(4) Timber frame houses constructed with modular prefabricated frame-elements.

Brief outline. Most timber frame houses are built according to the balloon frame construction method or the platform frame method. A search for docu- ments relating to systems which combine the advan- tages of both methods would provide a good com- prehensive survey of wooden building construction.

(5) Wind energy-special uses. Britlfoutline. The windmill was the first device to use natural energy, and the patent literature at present covers a variety of wind-engines. They can be used for driving pumps or electric generators, e.g. in installations for storing energy.

Participants were given the above-information and were free to choose the topic that interested them. Each group prepared a summary report on the topic chosen which was distributed to all the participants.

The second part of the seminar concluded with an assessment of the work carried out by the various groups, which provided an opportunity for joint re- flection on the methods used, difficulties encountered and the final solution, based on existing documen- tation, to the original problem.

(c) Part 3. Once the practical uses of patent docum- entation had been demonstrated, the third part went on to show that, as well as having documentary uses, patents constituted a more universal tool capable of playing a decisive role in industrial development : the patent as a legal and commercial instrument.

The third part consisted of lectures and round-table discussions, with special emphasis on the latter, and was organised as follows:

Firstly, senior representatives of the patent depart- ments of major companies in industrialised countries explained in thoroughly practical terms how they used the various facets of the patent in the development strategy of their company.

This was followed by a consideration of the underly- ing theory, in the form of a lecture on the legal aspects

of the patent system. At this stage the main emphasis was still on the experience of the industrialised countries.

Secondly, attention was focused on the problems specific to developing countries, beginning with an exercise in which the participants explained how patents were used in their national economies and how they promoted progress . . or represented an obstacle.

In the light of the participants’ perception of where their countries’ interests lay, talks were then given on the history and development of patent systems in the developing countries, how these systems contributed to industrial development and how they might be better utilised. Here, it was more a question of reviewing the interests and problems involved than providing precise or dogmatic answers to the questions raised, if only because of the widely differing situations in the de- veloping countries.

The third subject dealt with was international and regional patent co-operation, particularly as a factor contributing to the solution of problems encountered by the developing countries. Thus, the thinking behind, and recent developments in, the Paris Convention and the PCT, as well as regional experience. both in Africa

and in Europe, were discussed.

The various lectures were followed by in-depth and sometimes animated discussions. Given the wide- ranging problems discussed, the chairman for this third part continually had to clarify and link together the questions raised and inject a dose of reality into the discussion when participants showed a tendency to indulge in flights of speculation.

B. The participants

The programme was conceived for participants in senior positions in industry already having fairly extensive professional experience. As can be seen, this

Development Co-operation 99

was not a specialised training course in industrial property, prior knowledge of which was neither re- quired nor desired.

The seminar brought together 22 participants :

10 from Africa, 7 from Latin America, 5 from Asia.

Both as regards professional experience and geo- graphical origin, a wide diversity was very evident among the participants : this might have been a source of difficulty but in fact it served rather as a stimulus.

II. Assessment of the Seminar by the Participants

At the end of the seminar, half a day was given over to an assessment of the organisation and content of the fortnight’s work and participants were given a ques- tionnaire to be completed anonymously.

A. Objectives and results (a) The main objectives of participants in attending the seminar were given as follows:

l ‘gaining practical experience in handling patent

documents, means of access and classification, search methods, “extracting” appropriate technical infor- mation and using data banks’;

l ‘acquiring overall knowhow, studying the role of technical information and patents in innovation and industrial strategies ; understanding how the world patent system works’;

l ‘hearing about other people’s experiences, finding out what is available in the way of patents and documentation centres and learning how to use such information and how to set up and modernise an industrial property service.’

Of the specific aspects of the seminar which best met these objectives, the case studies were mentioned by more than ten participants. Others noted were:

l the presentation of the International Patent

Classification and the search methods to which it gave rise ;

l the lively debates which followed the lectures in Part 3;

l the practical and realistic approach to the lec- tures, discussions and practical work.

B. Suggestions In summary form, the following suggestions were made in answer to the last part of the questionnaire:

l more time should be spent using on-line equipment;

l a greater number of examples should be used which reflect the situation and problems of the de- veloping countries and the experience of small and medium-sized industries. Legislation in the developing countries should also be compared.

l where possible, less sophisticated methods than those used by the EPO, and consequently more readily transposable, should be proposed ;

. a similar seminar should be organ&d in situ, in the developing countries, aimed in particular at gen- erating an awareness of the issues involved among the ‘decision-makers’;

l the seminar represents only an introduction: if

full benefit is to be derived from it, it needs to be followed up by additional practical training courses;

l lastly, the Latin Americans unanimously sugges- ted that in future the documents should be available in Spanish and that simultaneous interpretation facilities for Spanish should be provided.

In future seminars, it should be perfectly feasible to take account of the various suggestions made, parti- cularly as regards the use of Spanish. Clearly, there is still room for substantial improvements and there is also little doubt that all those involved should be made more aware of the experience and problems peculiar to

the developing countries.

Finally, it will be up to the organisations responsible for the seminar to examine how a suitable follow-up can be arranged for all those interested.