Research-Industry Cooperation: Profiles and Challenges

Increased responsibility is allotted to the Universities in Europe. In the knowledge economy, Universities are not only seen as a supplier of knowledge workers, or as the outpost at the frontier of knowledge; but as a driving force in the development of the new economy by providing valuable knowledge for commercialization. Varieties of management practices within Universities have emerged, and this presentation will focus on best practices of Intellectual Asset Management as a preparatory step for successful technology transfer.

Despite the fact that nanotechnology is still in an early stage and the best inventions are yet to come, patent offices have experienced a massive surge in patent applications relating to subject matter in the field of nanotechnology. The eagerness to obtain a means of intellectual property protection seems to be of such great extent that even small and incremental inventions, which can sometimes hardly be called inventions at all, are patented. Whether or not that practice leads to actual progression of technology, which is the ultimate goal of patent law, is questionable.