Scientific Research and Intellectual Property

Until a few decades ago, state universities, institutes and other scientific research organizations all over the world served the public interest and published the results of their scientific research activities free of charge. Nowadays, information is kept secret or protected by intellectual property rights, most often by patents, before the publishing in scientific papers. That is what the interests of the industry dictate. Globalization has demanded that universities adapt to such a trend and open up to business and international cooperation. This includes the effective protection and management of the results of their research, primarily through the protection of their intellectual property.

For researchers at faculties and institutes, in addition to the information contained in scientific journals, the information contained in patent databases may also be interesting. The technical knowledge that is not published anywhere else can often be found there. Patent documentation databases can serve both as inspiration and as a source for solving the problems that university staff encounter in their research activities. If researchers want to file a patent application, they should definitely do so before publishing information about the invention in scientific papers, because the information published in them is also considered when examining the novelty of a later patent application.

On the other hand, the results of research created in scientific research organizations can be protected for the purpose of their commercial exploitation. By protecting research results, scientific research organizations create a basis for providing additional funding used for new research either through licensing, sales, or by establishing research spin-off companies that further commercialize intellectual property. Also, researchers at universities and institutes, who are cited as inventors, can benefit through the evaluation of their scientific research work (the Rulebook for the evaluation of scientific and research work) through patents. Encouraging universities and other public research institutions to be more active in the protection and exploitation of intellectual property means encouraging their cooperation with the economy.

The protection of the results of scientific research is one of the key preconditions for successful commercialization of inventions. The process from the genesis of the invention until its commercialization, whether through a “spin-off” or “spin-out” (company based on the commercial exploitation of research results from R&D institutions), or licensing technology, is known as technology transfer.

Technology transfer support is provided by Technology Transfer Centers, usually established at universities. The Center for Technology Transfer of the University of Belgrade was founded in 2010. You can see more about the services of the Technology Transfer Center of the University of Belgrade on the website http://www.ctt.bg.ac.rs/en/ .

Lecturers who participate in teaching at universities, and who want to introduce topics related to intellectual property rights in their subjects, can use the IP teaching Kit (content is on the link on the current website) of the European Patent Organization.

The handbooks contain everything needed to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the patent system, including information on filing patent applications and searching patent databases. Regardless of whether the lecturers have experience with patents or not, this manual contains customized lecture materials, which will enable the preparation and holding of a lecture lasting from one to two hours, as well as three additional modules if necessary. The manuals related to other intellectual property rights are available too, and they are developed in cooperation of the European Patent Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office  in English and can be found on the website of the European Patent Office.