Estonia, facing a new innovation culture

Twelve years have passed since the re-establishment of independence in Estonia. This has been quite a short time to adjust to the market economy and new ways of living.
To get an idea of innovations in Estonia, let’s take a look at the following figures:

In 2002 the following types of patents were registered with the Estonian Patent Office:
• Patent registration: 504 patents (2,6% Estonians) 97,4% of the patents are owned by citizens of some foreign states
• Utility model registration: 72 altogether (96% Estonians)
• Trademarks registered: 4263 (16,5% Estonians)
• Industrial design: 146 (22% Estonians)

Notices:
• All figures are in growth comparing past years
• There are no women within named

• Estonia has a very small number of inventors today.

That can be explained by the following facts:

• One has to cover all the costs involved in obtaining a patent himself/herself and no bonus system exists
• In Estonia there is a lack of a support system similar to the one developed in Finland.
• Very few inventors have a talent for successful marketing of their ideas

• There is a monocultural innovation system in Estonia indicating the domination of men in the field of innovation

• Official statistics do not show female inventors separately. A simple analyse certifies that women are strongly underrepresented in the innovation system of Estonia.
• The innovation system itself is a result of a structure made by men, run by men and consisting mainly of men
• Existing measures of innovativeness are very often non- adjustable for female inventions

• The reasons for the low representation of women in innovation in Estonia are:

• The role of an inventor is untraditional for women
• Lack of self-confidence of women. Many women do not consider themselves as inventors, even if they own patents
• Lack of traditions of an intellectual property culture:

During 50 years of Soviet rule in Estonia the approach towards innovation could be described as follows:
• The notion of intellectual property did not exist - all property was collectively owned
• Imported equipment, machinery, technologies and items were copied and sold on the internal market.
• The inventor could not apply for a patent. That was left for the government, and the patent belonged to the state. The inventor received an authorship certificate and a moderate bonus.
• knowledge of intellectual property, its protection and relevant legislation continues to be very limited

Promotion of women is also promotion of diversity.
We need to promote heterogeneity to generate new, sustainable ideas for products and services.

Competence Development

• Awareness
• The QUIN conference and exhibition in Tallinn last year opened a new door for Estonian women, the door to the world of intellectual property:
• About 70 Estonian participants could see patented exhibits and listen stories of female inventors
• It gave a growth of awareness (one Estonian lady left the application for registration of her design “Coffee-pot warmer” just after the conference)
• Growth of self-confidence and interest about intellectual property culture
• QUIN-Estonia have lectured for women in rural areas, in particular for handicraft makers (in 7 different places in Estonia)
• There was held two seminars about intellectual property rights in Tallinn organized by WIPO and The Estonian Patent Office. The Estonian QUINs were participants and helpers – organizing other women to the seminar.
• QUIN-Estonia have distributed informative materials published by Estonian Patent Office among women entrepreneurs and handicraft makers

Train the women, train the innovator:

• 5 seminars with a travelling exhibition of patented textiles (composed in Finland) have been planned by QUIN-Est to be held in Estonia in 2004 ( Application for the grant of U.S.A. Embassy)
• QUIN-Est is participating in process of preparation of learning materials about intellectual property culture issues for courses in high schools, industrial schools, universities and for further training

• Train the trainer

• It is necessary to encourage the organizations that advise inventors and innovators to provide information and methods with the aim of being more accessible to women
• There is a need to produce strategic development programs for regions that want to improve the creative climate for women in Estonia

• An area for research

• QUIN-Estonia participates in organizing a network of researchers with participants from several universities representing a broad variety of academic disciplines such as entrepreneurship, design, technology, marketing and gender perspectives (Partners: Tallinn Technical University, Halmstad University, etc.)
• There is needed a research and introduction of new or extra criterions for protecting female inventions.

That might lead to the situation where no one can say that women do not qualify as good inventors or that their abilities are limited.

Mrs.Lien Verbauwhede, SMEs Division consultant, WIPO
Artesania de Colombia S.a.
http://www.artesaniasdecolombia.com.co/contactenos_frm.htm
e-mail: artesanias@txdata.net
Mrs.Cecilia Duque Duque – how to protect handicraft production

Visibility:

• Internet
www.quin.biz
www.gwiin.com

In October a separate website of QUIN-Estonia will be opened.

• Mass media.

•The first media interest towards QUIN and innovative women in Estonia occurred in August 2002 after the QUIN conference in Tallinn (articles were written in 2 biggest newspapers in 2 magazines, and 2 radiobroadcasts were made)
• For the editors the problem was that even if they wanted to publish more material about women, they did not know where to find it
• QUIN-Est have established contacts with some editors. This has resulted in more articles about innovation and innovative women in the ordinary pages (for instance in newspapers such as Eesti Ekspress and Russkaja Vedomostj)
• Publishing more informative materials about intellectual property issues in press and media (A research shows that Estonians get their knowledge from press mostly)
• Publicity helps inventors to introduce their patented ideas and to make them known, thus protecting invention and innovation
• Encouraging patterns for the other women

• Specially pointed out

• Patented products could be sold in Estonian shops under the sign “This (these) product(s) is (are) patented. Copying forbidden.” (Only 7 % of enterprises in Estonia have a trade mark)
• Patented inventions by women could be published in special publications, handicraft magazines, in websites, etc. (or other sources)
• Estonian Patent Office could give number of statistics about Estonian female inventions separately

Legislation

• Draft of a law about establishing a supporting system of inventors in Estonia (Cooperation with the other innovative organizations)

Co-operation

• Co-operation with organizations in Estonia

Some of our co-operation partners today are for example:

• The Estonian Patent Office
• The Estonian Patent Library
• Nordic Council of Ministers in Tallinn
• Tallinn Technical University
• Tallinn Academy of Arts
• The Association of Business and Professional Women
• Regional women organizations in Estonia
• Women Education Centre in Tallinn, etc.

* International co-operation

• We are convinced that we work for an important issue when we promote women as inventors and innovators.
• We hope to become stronger by reaching outside our national borders to build new international networks and co-operation supporting innovative women.

Some of our foreign partners today:

• QUIN-Finland
• QUIS (Qvinnliga Uppfinnare I Sverige)
• QUIN-Iceland,
• QUIN-Denmark
• Women Innovative Activities Centre of Lithuania
• Creative and Innovative Women Centre in Wroclaw, Poland
• Global Women Inventor´s and Innovator´s Network (GWIIN), UK
• IFIA (International Federation of Inventors Associations) in Geneva
• WITEC, Halmstadt University, Sweden
• WIPO

• Networking
There are two very important factors in networking:
1. People:
• Who are ready to do a lot of voluntary work
• Who are able to write projects for getting money for the network
• Who can lead and communicate with people of different cultures

2. Money:
• A very necessary energetic material to cover costs, to do networking (11 applications and 3 grants)

We, Estonian women, would like to find by the help of the networking with the other innovative women organizations:

• Role models
• Exchange of information
• Good practices
• New networks
• Tested models, i.e. both know-how as well as show-how.

We are ready:

• To learn,
• To share experiences and contribute new ideas,
• To do subcontracting work for the realisation of new ideas,
• To act as mediators when exploring and entering new markets, etc.

Estonia’s (fast-track) accession to the European Union means also increased integration into the European business community. We are ready to do so engaging into mutually beneficial cooperation.

Finally, I’d like to finish with the words of Mrs Bola Olabisi, the founder of the Global Women Inventors and Innovators Network:

• Encouraging women into the world of business, creativity, science, engineering, technology & intellectual property is to promote invention and innovation.
• Encouraging innovation and invention is to encourage growth in enterprise.
• Encouraging growth in enterprise is to encourage economic development and sustainable growth.