Post Tagged with: "bayh-dole"

Commercialization of IP In Canadian Universities: Barely Better Than Break Even

Last week, Statistics Canada released its latest report on the commercialization of intellectual property in Canadian universities.  Canada spends billions of public dollars on research funding each year and the government has been increasingly focused on how best to commercialize the results.  While there are several possible approaches to doing this, the government and some universities have been focused on building patent and IP portfolios as part of a conventional commercialization strategy.  The alternative could be an open access approach – encourage (or require) much of the intellectual property to be made broadly available under open licences so that multiple organizations could add value and find ways to commercialize.  The universities might generate less income but would better justify the public investment in research by providing the engine for larger economic benefits.

Which approach is better?  The full commercialization approach has been tried in the U.S. with legislation known as Bayh-Dole and studies (here and here) have found that patents to universities have increased, but the increase has been accompanied by harm to the public domain of science and relatively small gains in income.

The Canadian Science and Technology Strategy similarly places its faith in commercialization through IP portfolios and licencing, yet the Statscan data suggests that this has also been ineffective. 

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August 31, 2010 18 comments News

Survey Finds Scientists Believe IP Protection Has Negative Effect on Biological Research

Nature Biotechnology has just published an article on the perceived effects of intellectual property protection for biological research.  The article involved a detailed survey of academic agricultural biologists on their perception of IP and research.  The authors' primary conclusion: Scientists believe that, contrary to the current consensus, proliferation of IP […]

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January 23, 2009 6 comments News