The statement was produced by ALLEA's permanent working group on intellectual property rights. It was released on 11 November 2019 and formulates recommendations both to scientific organisations and European and national legislators. It also highlights the importance of managing intangible assets, such as computer software or patented technology, with due consideration of intellectual property rights (IPR).

With its statement, ALLEA addresses this shift of economic relevance from tangible to intangible assets and urges academic institutions to adopt adequate IPR strategies which ensure that knowledge transfer benefits society, for example in public-private partnerships. It also presents options to European and national legislators on ways to incentivise the translation of publicly funded research results into IP-protected innovative products and processes.

The statement recommends to academic institutions:

• To adopt a holistic approach as regards to their IP strategies, in order to remain attractive as partners in public-private partnerships (PPP) or for third party funding.
• To raise awareness of the importance of IPR for innovation on both the micro- and macroeconomic scale and developing models which adequately remunerate employees in case of a successful commercialisation of research findings.
• To make available financial and human resources in order to secure in-house structures or external mechanisms to deal with invention disclosures, filing and prosecution of IPRs, as well as the monitoring of granted IPRs.
• To establish clear rules around the ownership in and handling of IPRs in cases of commercial spin-outs.

The statement furthermore advises European and national legislators:

• To devise legal frameworks similar to those adopted in the US, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.
• To introduce a grace period into patent law, and to consider preferential tax treatment for income generated through commercialisation of publicly funded research.
• To better support cooperation between academic institutions in the commercialisation of their research results and to optimise cooperation of existing Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs).

To download the ALLEA Statement, click here

Original Source: https://era.gv.at/object/news/5039