New information dissemination structures

Innovation is being encouraged as never before; technology transfer and exploitation of knowledge are the catchphrases of the moment. The Institute is well placed to take an active role in this situation, since responsibilities have not yet been officially decided. In order to take such a role, the Institute needs new products to bridge the gap between sovereign and market-oriented services and to aid the assessment of the patentability of inventions; it also needs a new information infrastructure with external partners, leading to more intensive use of property rights systems and the information they contain, particularly in universities and colleges but also in industry. This represents a shift from mere industrial property law information to added-value services. The purpose of an evaluation project is to create an information dissemination system based on market-oriented service products; where appropriate, such a system will also encourage the use of industrial property rights, both in industry and in colleges and universities, by the involvement of suitable external partners. To this end the existing system of documentation offices, which no longer meets the needs of customers in Switzerland today, must be replaced by an electronic information dissemination system using the Internet; in addition there will be a physical network of external providers who are, for the present, to offer two added-value products to interested customers from industry and research. Important components of this project are the development and implementation of these new products and the examination of suitable forms of contract for mutually profitable co-operation with external providers (mainly from (specialised) colleges and universities), but also from industries and SMEs.