Who Owns Academic Inventions? Reassessing the Question of Ownership in the era of University Technology Transfer

Abstract

University technology transfer is a global phenomenon. The goal of technology transfer is to bring "under-utilised; under-developed; under-commercialised" academic research into the private sector to be developed into socially beneficial products. The economic rationale is that greater interaction between public research and private industries will bring greater return for publicly supported research and development. Accordingly, national innovation policies encourage universities to approach academic research with an "entrepreneurial" attitude. This means that the direction of research has shifted from curiosity-driven to commercial applications. Academic research is the subject of exclusive intellectual property rights, and the commercially valuable is exploited in the marketplace. Technology transfer is the impetus for "entrepreneurial" research, and the re-definition of the university ... The author takes the overall position that an academic can be employed to invent in certain circumstances; in particular where the university research environment is heavily orientated towards facilitating technology transfer...