Project extended to June 2012

Following the success of the second project in 2010 and 2011, during which the quantity of training material was doubled and many translations produced, the European Commission and the European Patent Office have been pleased to agree a short extension to the project for an extra six months. This will provide an opportunity to complete entirely new e-learning materials and to collect case studies on IP strategy to support the existing PowerPoint(R) files. Furthermore the project website will soon be re-launched with a "wiki" format, enabling registered users to directly upload their own adaptations of the modules for sharing with other trainers. More news on these developments will follow in February 2012.

Virtual Classroom Lessons (VCLs) for February and March

Four 1-hour VCLs using excerpts from popular ip4inno modules will be run for free over the internet. Users can follow the tutorial online from the comfort of their own desk or laptop and they can also pose questions live to the tutor via a chat window or microphone headset. Follow these links for more information and to register:

    Monday 20 February 14:00 - 15:00 CET
    Module 6B - Selling the message: how to convince SMEs that IP matters

    Monday 27 February 14:00 - 15:00 CET
    Module 5C - Business strategies for enforcing patents

    Monday 5 March 14:00 - 15:00 CET
    Module 6A - IP in the ICT sector

    Monday 12 March 14:00 - 15:00 CET
    Module 6A - Biotechnology patents
    
Four 2-day workshops at the EPO's main premises are planned for April, May, October and November 2012. More information on precise dates and programmes will appear here shortly.

Recordings from last year's VCLs

Our first two Virtual Classroom Lessons were a great success! Participants from all over Europe tuned-in to listen to the one-hour sessions, and now the recordings are available for you to watch. The two VCLs covered IP issues for five business models and raising finance for new inventions.  

Many new files uploaded to the training modules library

The collection of over twenty modules is now bursting with almost 250 files! A brand new module - 4F - concerns technology transfer to China, warning of the differences in the Chinese IP system which can cause problems for unwary Europeans. The module was written by experts from the China IPR SME Helpdesk and was well received at two workshops last November. We also have many new translations of other modules uploaded in recent months, including French, Bulgarian, Serbian and Czech, to complement existing materials in Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Spanish, and Chinese. If you would like to contribute to the translation work, or if you are an IP trainer wanting access to these materials, please contact us at  ip4inno(at)epo.org 

ip4inno is a "Best Practice" example

The PRO INNO EUROPE website has published a report on the first ip4inno project, which is considered to be a role model for other innovation supporting projects.  The "Best Practice" fact sheet explains the strengths and successes of the first project.  The website also includes a short video about the project from those involved in creating the training material, those who taught with it, and those who it helped to improve their business strategies through better IP knowledge.

Find an ip4inno-trainer IP trainer in your country! 

Search in the database of participants of ip4inno train-the-trainer seminars by country, city, ip4inno module or language.