1. Module workshop 5B Soft IP
The name, venue and date fields are to be left for trainers to complete whenever they run their own training.
Name of speaker
Venue & date 1

2. ip4inno is brought to you by:
European Commission, DG Enterprise & Industry
European Patent Office
19 consortium partners in the first ip4inno project
This particular module was written by:
European Institute for Enterprise and
Intellectual Property (IEEPI)
with funding from the EC and EPO
For information the partners in the first project ( ) were:
European Patent Office
Hungarian Patent Office
Portuguese Patent & TM Office
National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland
Spanish Patent Office
INPI, France
State IP Office of Croatia
Turkish Patent Office
Danish Patent Office
European Business and Innovation Centres Network
CRP Henri Tudor, Luxembourg
FUNDITEC, Spain
IWT - Flanders
Fraunhofer TEG
IEEPI, Strasbourg
METU - Technopolis, Turkey
Fundación EOI, Spain
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
University of Alicante 2

3. The Disclaimer!
This training material concerns intellectual property and business strategies only in general terms.
This training material should not be relied upon when taking specific business or legal decisions. Rather, professional advice should be obtained which suits the circumstances in question.
A trainer can add a bit of humour here by saying:
"This seminar is not intended to make anyone into an IP expert. We are not training you to become patent attorneys! Rather, please think of this course as "intellectual property First Aid". And what is the purpose of First Aid? - "To keep the patient alive long enough for professional help to arrive." that is what we hope to achieve with you - to make you IP paramedics. When clients come to you with a business issue, we hope you will know enough about IP to be able to spot an IP problem or opportunity which the client has missed, and prevent them from making the situation worse, whilst referring them to appropriate legal advisors. 3

4. 4) Workshop Exercise: Happy Baby (1)
What kind of protection is appropriate?
Leave this slide up before you talk.
Arrange the audience into small discussion groups of 3-5 people.
Distribute a sheet with the following text:
Happy Baby GmbH (“Happy Baby”) is a German based company that sells under the brand name "Happy Baby" high quality organic baby food to grocery stores in Europe using its advertising slogan "Happy Baby makes you happy!". The company has started to gain market share through a strong sales team following the strategy to develop good relationships with regional and store managers. For this reason it has provided its sales employees with generous budgets to organize special events for its retailers that help to strengthen the business relationship. These strategies aim to improve shelf positioning and to encourage promotional sales. Happy Baby’s success is also due in part to its ability to make high quality organic food that even tastes more 'grown up'. Each meal is made with a special recipe that is known only to the director of production and his three key assistants. Without the secret formulae Happy Baby could lose its market niche.
1. The General Managers of Happy Baby is wondering what kind of soft intellectual property rights, if any, his production company owns?
2. What type of protection should he consider to protect this soft intellectual property rights best?
3. As a result of your answer (2), which employees should be bound by restrictive covenants? What are the most important issues these covenants should cover content wise?
"Happy Baby" - an innovative nutrition company specialized in organic baby food 4

5. 4) Workshop Exercise: Happy Baby (2)
What kind of soft IP does Happy Baby own and with respect to what?
What is the best protection for this soft IP?
Which employees should be bound by restrictive covenants? What other issues have to be observed content wise?
TIME GIVEN TO THE GROUPS TO SOLVE THESE QUESTIONS: 10 MINUTES.
a. The General Managers of Happy Baby is wondering what kind of soft intellectual property rights, if any, his production company owns, and with respect to what?
b. What type of protection should he consider to protect this soft intellectual property rights best?
c. As a result of your answer (2), which employees should be bound by restrictive covenants? What are the most important issues these covenants should cover content wise? 5

6. 4.a. What Soft IP? With Respect to What?
Confidential information
Know how
Trade secrets
Trademarks
List of customers
Sale strategy
The way do the product
Recipe / secret formulae
Brand name
Confidential information
Know how
Trade secrets
Trademarks
Advertisement slogan
List of customers
Sale strategy
The way do the product
Recipe / secret formulae
Brand name
Slogan
Confidential information
Know how
Trade secrets
List of customers
Sale strategy
The way do the product
Recipe / secret formulae
Confidential information
Know how
List of customers
Sale strategy
The way do the product
Confidential information
List of customers
Sale strategy
Happy Baby owns several kinds of Soft IP rights:
- confidential information, with the list of customers (the lists of groceries and store managers) and with the sale strategy (special events, promotional sales)
- Know-How, with the way to do the product
- trade secrets: the recipe/ secret formulae
- trademarks: the brand name “Happy Baby” itself
- advertisement slogan 6

7. 4.b. What is the Best Protection?
Registration of trademarks
Keep certain sensible information such as food recipes, customer names etc. restricted to key employees
Conclusion of restrictive covenants such as nondisclosure agreements, non-solicitation agreements, non-compete agreements and anti-raiding agreements
The best way to protect these soft IP rights is:
- to register the trademarks.
- to keep certain sensible information such as food recipes, customer names etc. restricted to key employees.
- to conclude restrictive covenants such as non-disclosure agreements, non-solicitation agreements, non-compete agreements and anti-raiding agreements with the concerned employees. 7

8. Useful Links
Dedicated expertise in Intellectual Property, easy to understand information
World Intellectual Property Organization, SMEs pages
model of NDA
responsible for IP in the UK
In case you need more information, here are some websites were you can find explanations on this topic. In particular, there is a model of non-disclosure agreement on the wipo website. 8 8

9. Thank you for your attention!
<insert presenter's name & contact details>
Over 50 teaching hours of material, case studies, exercises, links and more can be found on
The presenter can take additional questions now. 9