Expert Group Report Management of Intellectual Property in ... - KoWi

1. CHAPTER ONE
Background Reasons and Rationale for the Management of IPR
The first chapter of the Guidelines identifies policy issues around the management of intellectual
property rights in PRO’s. The aim of the introduction is to set out the rationale and reasons for proactive
management, together with the benefits and objectives, which need to be committed to by all
stakeholders in the process.
Key Messages
There is consensus among all stakeholders with an interest in innovation that more should be
done to facilitate effective management of IPR and technology transfer from PROs.
There is evidence from different legal and practical regimes such as the US and the UK that
effective management of IPR (the innovation model) can lead to substantially increased
economic and societal benefits.
The open science and innovation models for the management of PRO research results can
simultaneously operate to good effect within a PRO.
PROs should be given support to develop the access to the necessary expertise in IPR
management and exploitation.
Unless researchers understand and accept that their PRO mission to promote the dissemination
of research results can be enhanced by the innovation model, it will be impossible to increase
technology transfer from PROs.
1.1. Introduction
Innovation has an impact on macro-economic level as well as on micro-economic level and therefore
impacts on the lives of everyone. There is therefore a particular range of individuals with a role to
play in economic matters to whom innovation management is of direct concern and interest- these we
refer to as our stakeholders and they are more fully identified below. Building awareness about the
steps that together we can pro-actively engage in to harness the maximum benefits from innovation is
recognised as a crucial exercise as we enter a new century.
The basis of interaction between academia and industry is changing from the more historical scenario
where new technologies were pushed out from the PROs’ side to one where the marketplace exerts a
pull on technology it now wishes or needs to access from academia. In order to increase this exchange,
PROs can do more than just establish technology transfer organisations: they can also increase
awareness within the research base about the bigger picture of how research activities can be turned
into economic and societal benefits.
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