Traditionally, public funded research was deemed to be focused on questions of essential scientific interest, the so-called basic research. This was intended to merely disclose new scientific and technological knowledge through publications. In the last two decades this scenario has dramatically changed and the support for the commercialisation of publicly funded research results has grown. In this Bulletin, this issue is addressed in two articles. The first one is the outcome of a conference organised by the European Patent Office (EPO) on “Creating markets from research results” and the other is about a report compiled by a group of experts on how the national intellectual property offices can help academic institutions and technology transfer offices enhance their technology transfer activities.

Furthermore, in this issue you can read an interview with an IP expert on the fundamentals of an IP valuation for a proper management of intangible assets. Within the “do-it-yourself” series, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) highlights some of the salient feature of its e-tutorial on using patent information, i.e. the technical and legal information contained in patent documents. In another article, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) tells us the success story of the Registered Community Design (RCD) over the last ten years.

As always, you can enjoy the patent quiz and are informed about IP awareness raising events.

You can find our Bulletin here.