As someone who has assisted Universities for over 25 years in protecting their IP , I was interested to listen to today's webinar hosted by the European patent office (EPO), on the above topic. The webinar was centred around research conducted by the EPO and Fraunhofer ISI, looking at how Universities in Europe protect and commercialise their IP. I must commend the EPO for an extremely informative, well run and organised event.
As well as today's webinar, the EPO has published details of their findings, which can be found here : https://link.epo.org/web/publications/studies/en-the-role-of-european-universities-in-patenting-and-innovation.pdf
The report is very comprehensive and I will not try to summarise it here. Suffice it to say that I intend writing a longer article looking at some of the key findings in the report and where UK universities position themselves as compared to their European counterparts.
"Europe has a longstanding tradition of academic excellence, but we sometimes struggle to turn research into commercial success," said EPO President, António Campinos. "This study sheds light on academic inventiveness across Europe to further inform policies and strategies. By leveraging patents through licensing, collaboration or spin-outs, universities can amplify their impact, driving both market and social value. As the recent Draghi report underscores, there is still significant work to be done to achieve a single market for research and technology in Europe, since our study reveals that 10% of startups with academic patents now move to the US".
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