Patent Information Centres - value added services through the network

An Employment and Economic Development Center (EED-Center) is a regional service point where the services of three departments of state are integrated to the same regional customer service center in the province. The ministries are the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Ministry of Labour. The service concept of the centers will upgrade the quality of the services aimed especially at starting SMEs and for those who are developing their operations or products. The leading principle in establishing the EED-Center has been one-stop-shop-principle, in other words, you can get all services from the same spot. This principle has strengthened remarkably now that the services of National Board of Patents and Registration are available in EED-Centers. The co-operation started during the autumn 1998 and now SMEs can have the following services in all 15 EED-centers: - trade register information services, - trade register official notices and advisory services, - patent applications, advisory services for applying for a patent, - utility model, trade mark, design model, application and advisory services.Five of the 15 EED-centers are committed to become Patent Information Centers, and in those centers we have built up a service based on video/PC contentions, shared databases and the services of examining engineers in FIPO. The service is aimed at the SMEs starting their business or developing their operations or products. The service concept consists of three different services: - pre-evaluation of product-idea, - examination of technical solution, - technical evaluation of project proposal.All services will be provided during a videosession between a customer, EED-Center-company analyst and the examining engineer in FIPO. The video connection is created between the FIPO and Patent Information Center with three fold ISDN-speed (384 Kb) on a standard PC, and during the session the examining engineer will connect to EPOQUE and share the data with the customer. The project is in the pilot-phase. After that we will make a decision on how to continue with the concept.