Читать книгу University Intellectual Property - Graham Richards - Страница 4

Universities are being forced to look beyond their traditional roles of teaching and conducting original research. The driving force behind this is above all financial pressure, as governments, fee payers and other investors seek to limit their contributions or produce a more tangible result for the money they have given. In the search for extra finance and impact, the attention of universities is increasingly focused on the exploitation of intellectual property generated by the academics working within them, but the situation is complex. The sorts of questions that have to be answered are: What constitutes intellectual property? Who owns it? How can it best be exploited?

This book aims to answer these questions by drawing upon the experiences of practitioners in this area. This will be helpful to academics, university administrators, and those involved in the growing business that is technology transfer. This latter activity involves not just those within universities, but also business angels, venture capitalists and major companies which increasingly look towards academic research to bolster their knowledge. All of these groups will find useful ideas, that will clarify thinking on university IP, in this book.

After a review of the recent history and the current situation, this book presents the views and experiences of a series of experts in this field. These range from those of a very senior lawyer, a patent attorney and a solicitor, to the views of a set of practitioners involved in technology transfer. In the last chapter, a provocative look at the ethics of the situation is presented.

We hope that the pieces in this collection will help readers to navigate this increasingly important area, which is now seen as a measure of the impact a university has as well as a potential source of finance for the institution.

Graham Richards, July 2012