DK

This association is an NGO organization, similar to others around the world. It was founded nearly 10 years ago and got a lot of attention from the Danish Media. We had invited Mr. Niels Due Jensen, son of the inventor, and founder of the big Danish company Grundfos, known worldwide for their water pumps and water supply systems. At that time he was in charge of the company.

He held an excellent speech about the need for inventions, and the importance of inventors for the community, the future, and for a better world to live in. With these words, and all the best wishes for the initiative, he declared “the Bazar for open” – and the Danish Inventors Association was a reality.

The work with the Danish association, has until now, been done voluntarily by the members, but our ambition now, is to have an official office, with a staff that can support our members more efficiently and can coordinate all the efforts as well as the administration.

Right now, we are working very hard with fundraising to finance this new activity, – without money we can´t do enough for our members! This should be our own gift to the 10 years birthday, the 12 Th. Marts 2015 and contribute to, that more good ideas can be realized for the benefit of all. Last year Denmark joined the common EU patent system, a wish Danish inventors have had for many years and will save us a lot of money on the price for applying a patent – that makes sense.

It has also for a long time been a big wish, that Denmark joined the planned common EU Patent Court system, but due to legal technicalities regarding the Danish constitution, we had to bring this out to a public referendum. This was done at the same time as we had the election to the EU Parliament this year in May. We spend a lot of time up to this election, branding inventors, TV, and interviews explaining to the population why they should say YES when voting.

We succeeded very much and got a very good and clear result from the voters. This also makes sense, – because without a competent and efficient Court system, that can handle conflicts in IPR cases, – a patent is not worth the paper is written on!

The situation is, that we won the first half, but we have to continue, where there is a lot of space for improvements. The next big battle is to improve the security in defending the IPR rights that have been obtained. This is the backside of the medal, and again, without efficient, fast, and competent handling, the patent is worthless!

We are very convinced, that the work we are doing in order to improve the general conditions on many fronts, for inventors have as a great value, but results in this branch is not coming overnight, it has to be considered as long term investment.

Another great value in our activities is the social aspect, in the local meetings, where members get together, with the possibility to exchange ideas and get inspiration, to keep up the spirit, to hang on with the work. Besides this forum normally is a very safe place to open up and tell about your idea, because they all have plenty of challenges in realizing their own ideas, so they don’t need more problems!

It can be a very lonely job and here it is important to believe, that you are going in the right direction! Meeting with others with the same mindset is very useful for our members.

A year ago, I wrote a book, invited and published by the leading Danish business newspaper Børsen, with the title: The forgotten store. The purpose was to be an “eye opener” for government, leaders in business, of the potentials in the ideas among private inventors, and as a call to look in this direction, for the benefit for all parts.

We have a slogan that says: Like the weather, and innovation, – a lot of people are talking about it, we do something by action and I will on the behalf of the Danish Inventor Association support you as the President for IFIA to improve conditions for investors around the world.