Welcome!

A warm welcome to the second quarterly newsletter from the Arizona Department of Commerce - designed to keep you up to date on trade developments and business opportunities in Europe. To keep it brief, we’ve provided synopses of our longer articles, which feed through to our website where you’ll find the full story.

You’ll find snippets on a wide range of subjects, all designed to give you a full picture of the business environment in Europe.  The newsletter carries an interactive invitation: if you have any questions or want to share your experience on working in Europe contact Karla Texiera at karlat@azcommerce.com.   We are here to help.

ADOC has personnel on both sides of the Atlantic dedicated to helping you do more business in Europe. Your two main points of contact are:
Karla Teixeria. Based in Arizona, Karla is the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Specialist. She can be reached on 602-771-1156 or at karlat@azcommerce.com.

Based in England, Nick can be contacted at nick.deane@ontracinternational.com.

Tell us how we can help you

We are constantly looking to improve the services and programs that we provide to the State’s small and medium sized businesses.  To achieve that, we have set up a short web-based survey. The information you provide will help shape our services to better meet your business objectives.

Just click here.

What ADOC can do for you

If you’re an SME hoping to break into the European market, you do not have to do it alone.  Use the ADOC’s suite of free services – dedicated to bringing in business to Arizona companies. From market research to setting up distributorship opportunities, we are here to point you to the right direction  Click (here) for more information on our services.

Are you doing business with our biggest trade partner?

How much of YOUR business is with the European Union? If not, just consider these facts.

• The EU and the US are not only the two biggest trading entities in the world – they are also each other's main trading partners.
• Trade flows across the Atlantic are running at around $2.5 billion a day.
• Between 6 and 7 million Americans owe their jobs directly or indirectly to EU companies.

The reason that trade between the two is so great is not just historical. It is because both are committed to cooperate - politically and economically, be it on bilateral issues or in the multilateral framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

And, over the next few years, EU-US economic cooperation should increase still further: at the last EU-US Summit on 30 April 2007, Commission President Barroso, German Chancellor Merkel and US President Bush signed a “Framework for Advancing Transatlantic Economic Integration between the USA and the EU”.

Included in the framework was the establishment of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) - a political body to oversee and accelerate government-to-government cooperation with the aim of further advancing economic integration between the European Union and the United States of America. The first meeting of the TEC was held on 9 November 2007 in Washington D.C. Although trade disputes between the two partners sometimes hit the headlines, in reality they only impact on some 2% of EU-US trade.

In the words of the European Commission: “When the world's two largest economies account for a combined total of 57% of world GDP, there is much to gain from more trade and investment and less barriers between them”.

You can read more about the ever closer ties between the two on this website: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/usa/index_en.htm

And if you want to explore the opportunities of doing business in and with European Union countries, email karlat@azcommerce.com.

Turbine opportunity as UK goes for wind power

The UK Government has announced a major drive towards wind power, and is ultimately hoping to harness up to 35 gigawatts of power from offshore power plants. To put this figure into perspective, one gigawatt powers about 750,000 homes.

Britain already has half of the world’s installed off-shore wind power plants now under construction and—should plans proceed as scheduled—it will become the world leader in the offshore wind industry. Studies estimate the UK’s generation potential at close to 1,000 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, which could ultimately make it a net exporter of power.

However, the British Wind and Energy Association has noted a potential flaw in the ambitious plans: a lack of turbines. Rapidly rising demand in Europe is already leading to delays, thereby opening the door to overseas companies able to supply components towards the specialist giant fiberglass constructions.

As with any rapidly developing industry, other sectors are already cashing in on the boom. North England, where most of the development activity is currently based, now has a thriving cluster of related industries: electrical, hydraulic and fibre optic connectors and grid connection solutions as well as sub-sea construction.

Europe-bound and looking for partners

The Arizona Department of Commerce is currently putting together a Trade Mission to Europe in Fall 2008 or Spring 2009.

The mission would be Trade Association-led and aimed at enabling a range of businesses—small to large—to make valuable connections with European counterparts, leading to distributorships, joint ventures and technology transfers.

If you have your sights set on Europe, get in touch today.  We are at an early stage in our planning and your input now could make a major contribution towards the direction and focus that the Mission takes—to your benefit. You can contact Karla by clicking here.

Make a date with our European Director

Our European Representative Trade Director Nick Deane is making his next trip to Arizona in the Spring and is interested in meeting up with companies in Arizona eager to know more about opportunities in Europe.  If you want to discuss potential markets for your goods or services, or see what help and support is available to you free of charge, contact us.

“The last visit proved incredibly useful,” says Nick. “In particular I met with a range of companies with many of them requesting market research reports to assist them with their export efforts. All that work is now proceeding and will soon start bearing fruit.”

To schedule a meeting with Nick, click here.

Meeting opens up new opportunities

“Growing Your Company in International Markets” was the subject of a seminar held in November to coincide with the visit of ADOC’s European Trade Director Nick Deane.
Approximately 40 representatives from Arizona companies and organizations attended to hear from speakers who included:

• Nick Hooper, Aerospace Specialist with UK Trade & Industry. The role of UK T&I is to encourage and export trade links between the UK and overseas markets. Nick talked about the UK market and opportunities across a range of different sectors;
• Matthew Goldstein of Miller Chevalier. One of Matthew’s specialties is export controls compliance for military, commercial, and dual use items and technologies. The key message of his presentation was to make sure you have researched what licenses you require, or it may cost you more than you anticipated; and
• Nick Deane, Arizona Dept of Commerce Representative European Trade Director, who gave a presentation on the benefits of exhibiting at Farnborough Air Show, where many companies from Arizona have now exhibited over recent years with support from ADOC. A number have now established valuable trade links with the European aerospace industry as a direct result.
  To indicate your interest in attending similar events, contact Karla by clicking here .

Protect your (intellectual) property

While no one would underestimate the challenges of protecting intellectual property within the US, the problems acquire a new dimension when a company or individual tries to do the same in an overseas market.

The first point to clear up is the common confusion between patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Although there may be some similarities among these kinds of intellectual property protection, they are different and serve different purposes.

There are three types of patents:

1. Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof;
2. Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and
3. Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor. In the US, patents are issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States. However, US patent grants are effective only within the United States and its territories and possessions.

Treaties and Foreign Patents
There is a treaty relating to patents which is adhered to by 168 countries, including the United States, and is known as the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. It provides that each country guarantees to the citizens of other countries the same rights in patent and trademark matters that it gives to its own citizens.

Despite that, almost every country has its own patent law. An inventor looking for patent protection in other countries must apply for a patent in each of the other countries or in regional patent offices.

In most foreign countries maintenance fees are required. Most foreign countries also require that the patented invention must be manufactured in that country after a certain period, usually three years. If there is no manufacture within this period, the patent may be void in some countries, although in most countries the patent may be subject to the grant of compulsory licenses to any person who may apply for a license.

In Europe, the situation is slightly complicated. On the one hand, the situation has been simplified by the fact that the European Patent Convention provides a legal framework for the granting of European patents, via a single, harmonized procedure before the European Patent Office. On the other, there is currently no single, centrally enforceable, European Union-wide patent.

After grant, a European patent is not a unitary right, but a group of essentially independent, nationally-enforceable, nationally-revocable patents. That means that each country has the right to enforce or challenge the patent.

It makes it all the more important if you have a design, production method or product you are about to patent, and feel could have international applications, to seek early advice on how to best protect your interests overseas. For assistance on this within Europe, ADOC can point you in the direction of suitably qualified people.

To find out more, contact Karla by clicking karlat@azcommerce.com .

Some useful information is available on patents on these two sites.
http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/patent/p-applying/p-apply.htm