Austria presented its national IP strategy. In addition to countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China and the USA, the Alpine republic is committed to the challenge of not only creating and securing intellectual property, but also using it in an economically sensible way. The starting point of these strategies is regularly the detection of a lack of IP management skills in the countries. This point is the core of the transformation to a knowledge economy and is expressly emphasized in the Austrian strategy paper.

The official announcement of the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy from February 2017 on the publication of Austria’s national IP strategy makes a self-critical distinction between the ranking of Austria according to the Global Innovation Index of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the status of the professional economic use of IP. This orientation towards the economic use of IP is shown by the statement made by Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Science, Research and Economy Dr. Mitterlehner, as well as the Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology Mag. Leichtfried that “in a globalized society, intellectual property is the ‘key currency’ of economy and research”.

In its recommendation to the Austrian Federal Government of June 2013, the Council for Research and Technology Development stated that “in Austria, however, the discussion about intellectual property and its economic usability is belated and insufficiently developed”. It is therefore only logical that Austria’s national IP strategy explicitly refers to the use of intellectual property and that IP should not be understood as an end in itself. The national IP strategy focuses on five fields of action:

  • Legal framework,
  • Institutional framework,
  • Skills and qualification needs,
  • Direct support for innovators and
  • Interfaces to other strategic, political topics.

The international expert group to reflect on the national IP strategy Austria consisted of:

Dr. Nava Swersky-Sofer (Israel),

Member Board of Directors, IMI Israel Military Industries. Innovation & commercialization expert.

Dr. Sara Matt-Leubner (Austria),

Head of the Science-Business-Society Transfer Office, University of Innsbruck

Prof. Dr. Martin Bader (Switzerland), Professor for technology management and entrepreneurship, TH Ingolstadt

Dr. Bertram Huber (Germany),

Principal, A at IP*SEVA Intellectual property Services for Sustainable Energy Ventures

Prof. Guido Kucsko (Austria),

Partner Schönherr Attorneys at Law, Vienna

Prof. Dr. Heinz Mueller (Switzerland),

Professor of Medical Biochemistry and Patent Expert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property

Prof. Dr. Joseph Straus (Germany),

Emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law in Munich and Head of the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center. Professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Lubljana University, George Washington University, Washington.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Wurzer (Germany)

Professor for IP Management at the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies at the University of Strasbourg, Head of the Institute for IP Management at the Steinbeis University in Berlin and managing partner of Wurzer & Kollegen in Munich.

Here you can download the Austria’s national IP strategy for free