Last week, Statistics Canada released its latest report on the commercialization of intellectual property in Canadian universities. Canada spends billions of public dollars on research funding each year and the government has been increasingly focused on how best to commercialize the results. While there are several possible approaches to doing this, the government and some universities have been focused on building patent and IP portfolios as part of a conventional commercialization strategy. The alternative could be an open access approach - encourage (or require) much of the intellectual property to be made broadly available under open licences so that multiple organizations could add value and find ways to commercialize. The universities might generate less income but would better justify the public investment in research by providing the engine for larger economic benefits.
Which approach is better? The full commercialization approach has
been
tried in the U.S. with legislation known as Bayh-Dole and studies (here
and here)
have found that patents to universities have increased, but the
increase has been accompanied
by harm to the public domain of science and relatively small gains in
income.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Michael Geist - Commercialization of IP In Canadian Universities: Barely Better Than Break Even
