EU Universities Must Create Value
Across Europe there are a number of legal and structural changes which affect university intellectual property (IP). Universities are gradually asserting ownership of the intellectual property created by their research staff. A good example of this is Finland where the government recently passed primary legislation that enable universities to own part of the IP created by their research staff, in an effort to stimulate IP commercialisation activities in the sector.
The new law requires university researchers to notify the university for all of the inventions they make. This process, which is very familiar to the industry, is completely new to academia. In addition to creating an opportunity for strengthening public institutions' financial base through additional wealth creation, it introduces a number of new questions, requirements and responsibilities that the universities now need to respond to:
- Every invention notice will have to be given an appropriate consideration and response. Considering the current organisation and resource base of universities, this will be a major task.
- Rules for inventor compensation need to be established and managed. How to create functional and cost effective incentive schemes?
- How to formulate and maintain a commercialisation strategy which provides practical guidance for everyday operations?
- What is the entity that manages the IPR portfolio, including aligning the internal management of:
- spinouts; universities will be able to own extensive stakes in spinout companies, via sepa rate foundations (some universities have these in place already, some do not),
- licensing,
- patenting and patent protection?
- Does the same entity that manages the university’s intellectual property rights (IPR) portfolio also own it?
- Where to get the funds for monetizing the IPR?
Suddenly the universities have much larger opportunities to make money with research, but they are far from perfectly prepared to take advantage of the new situation. Some institutions have part of the aforementioned strategies and operations in place, but none of them has had the resources to tackle the challenge as a whole. New approaches need to be taken.
