OECD Workshop to Promote Co-operation on Intellectual Property Generated by Public Research Organisations

Paris, 16 Oct 2002

Universities and other public research organisations generate valuable forms of intellectual property from software and databases to genetic and other inventions that can be major sources of innovation and economic growth. However, realising these benefits while maintaining the public service mission of such organisations requires coherent legal frameworks and suitable incentives for researchers and institutions.

The OECD and the Netherlands will co-organise a workshop in The Hague on 17 October 2001 on The Strategic Use of Intellectual Property Rights by Public Research Organisations. The participants will examine how governments can best foster the development and dissemination of intellectual property originating from public institutions while helping them to strike a balance between their public mission and their commercial objectives.

The workshop will use as a reference point the results of a recent OECD survey on the patenting and licensing policies and activities of public research institutions in Member and Non-Member countries. Working sessions will focus on:

How to improve coherence in the legal and regulatory frameworks governing the ownership and exploitation of intellectual property from public research organisations

What role governments should play in monitoring intellectual property activity and supporting technology transfer offices in PROs

Good practices in licensing university inventions

Ways to create incentives for institutions and researchers to promote, commercialise and protect their inventions

How to avoid conflicts of interest between the patenting and licensing activities of researchers and institutions

Programme for the workshop.

For further information, journalists are invited to contact Maryse Ducheine at the Press Office of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (Tel: [31] 70 37 9 6464/6018) or Mario Cervantes (Tel: [33] 1 45 24 94 31) and Benedicte Callan (Tel: [33] 1 45.24.14.67) at the OECD Science and Technology Division.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
http://www.oecd.org