Trade and Technology Council Working Group 9 - Webinar: Intellectual property and SMEs in the digital economy

The European Commission is pleased to announce the third webinar of the Trade and Technology Council Working Group 9 on promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to and use of digital tools.

The use of intellectual property to support a business is of paramount importance for both the U.S. and the EU. SMEs need support and guidance to best manage their inventions, brands, or creations globally and to grow and drive the green and digital transition.

The webinar (approx. 2 hours) will focus on selected topics related to intellectual property in the digital economy. The programme will feature speakers from the European Commission and the U.S. Government who will present and discuss subjects having significant importance for SMEs and being of major priority for policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Private sector representatives and SMEs will also share best practices about protecting intellectual property when pursuing international business opportunities. Additional topics will include the importance of intellectual property to attract investment as well as resources to help small businesses take the next step in protecting their intellectual property.

The unitary patent is in its final stages of implementation. This is a major achievement of the EU as regards patent law. It will establish a uniform granting and litigation system for the participating EU countries, which will benefit companies, in particular SMEs. The European Commission will provide a short overview of the main changes and next steps.  

The webinar is scheduled for 7 July 2022 and would be open to SMEs from the U.S. and the EU. The European Commission will host the event online using 'Interactio', which offers the possibility of following the event in different languages to be chosen.

Preliminary Agenda

• Introduction
• Intellectual property in the digital economy
  • Importance of intellectual property to digital economy
  • Common challenges to protecting intellectual property in third countries
  • U.S.-EU coordination on supporting SMEs in third country markets
• Views from businesses of the role of intellectual property in the digital economy
• Strategic use of intellectual property to scale up a business in the U.S. and EU
  • Intellectual property and public funding
  • Leveraging intellectual property for private sector financing
• Presentation on the upcoming unitary patent & Unified Patent Court
• Presentation of tools and resources to help SMEs protect and enforce their intellectual property:
  • Presentation of EUIPO awareness raising platform
  • Presentation of U.S. resources for SMEs
• Closing remarks