The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO has launched a free app that shows how to safeguard intellectual property rights. “L2Pro – Learn to protect your intellectual property” is a project designed to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), students and other interested parties with handy tips on how to file patents etc.
Many companies and private individuals are unsure about the legal aspects of patents, trademarks and the protection of intellectual property rights in general. Should you happen to work in a company, or study a subject, where such issues are of importance, this lack of knowledge can have far-reaching consequences. Fraunhofer IAO has therefore teamed up with Qualcomm Wireless Research in order to develop a simple and intuitive solution that provides a ready supply of information on intellectual property rights.
Patenticus is a free mobile app that is available for both smartphones and tablets. It was developed by the team working on the “L2Pro – Learn to protect your intellectual property” project. “Our idea was to make it more fun for users to get a handle on this rather dry topic,” says Lukas Keicher, who led the project at Fraunhofer IAO to develop the app. “We’ve incorporated a playful edutainment feature that enables users to progressively acquaint themselves with the various ways of handling intellectual property.” The app also provides concrete answers to practical questions in this field. It is targeted at people working in SMEs as well as students and graduates. However, it can be used by anyone with an interest in the topic, but no previous knowledge.
In order to provide a comprehensive level of support, the app has both edutainment and FAQ features. The edutainment feature helps users continuously build up their knowledge in a fun way. By entering their current level of knowledge, users can also avoid having to go back to the beginning each time. As with gaming software, the feature incorporates successively higher levels that users can reach by correctly answering questions or passing interim tests and thereby increasing their knowledge. Meanwhile, the FAQ feature provides ready answers to concrete questions. It contains all the most pressing queries of SMEs with regard to the topic of intellectual property. These were collated by the project team and then answered on the basis of information provided by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and a Stuttgart intellectual property lawyer.
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO