São Paulo Intellectual Property Network is Proposed

The network’s objective will be to strengthen initiatives for the protection of intellectual property, the generation and transfer of technology and the promotion of innovation in the state.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – The São Paulo Innovation Project held the Innovate São Paulo Seminar in FAPESP’s auditorium on November 29. The Project intends to develop and consolidate processes and strategies for evaluating and commercializing technology developed by scientific and technological institutions in São Paulo. It also intends to promote greater interaction between these organizations and the market.

A proposal for the creation of the São Paulo Intellectual Property and Technology Commercialization Network was launched during the event. The network will initially be composed of six of the seven institutions that form the Innovate São Paulo Project: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), the Technological Research Institute (IPT), the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA), Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) and Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp).
 
The network’s objective will be to strengthen initiatives for  protecting intellectual property, developing technology and transferring technology, and promoting innovation in São Paulo state.

“The network will function as a channel of interlocution for understanding intellectual property, standardization of procedures and shaping policies for commercialization of technologies generated by these institutions,” affirmed Roberto de Alencar Lotufo, director of Inova Unicamp, the innovation agency linked to the university, in an interview with Agência FAPESP.

According to Lotufo, Innovate São Paulo stimulated creation of the network by helping to intensify  relationships between participating institutions. Some of the Project’s goals, which resulted from a public call for proposals by the Brazilian Innovation Agency (Finep), are to evaluate 140 technologies developed by São Paulo research institutions and commercialize at least seven of them.

Among the technologies available for commercialization are an anti-cavity orthodontic sealant, developed by Unicamp researchers, and a new, non-invasive technique for medical evaluation, study and diagnosis in gastroenterology, created at Unesp.

“Innovate São Paulo generated a common base for intellectual property that must be nurtured for the generation of new business opportunities,” said Lotufo.

According to the president of the National Industrial Property Institute (INPI), Jorge de Paula Costa Ávila, the patents generated by the universities and research institutions have contributed to new fields of applied knowledge that now mobilize a major portion of the world’s economy.

According to Ávila, although university patents represent 3% of the patents filed in the United States, universities are the source of a large number of patents for the incremental improvement of technologies that are being developed by companies worldwide. This is because the research conducted by universities and scientific and technological institutions is the foundation for new applied knowledge.

“The patents of universities and research institutions allow a transition that until very recently was perhaps impossible, taking basic research closer to application,” Ávila said.

However, for Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s scientific director, companies should be the focus of industrial property, despite the importance of the patents generated by research at universities and research institutions.

In his presentation, Brito Cruz emphasized that FAPESP began to address the question of intellectual property at research institutions in São Paulo in 2000, when few academic institutions and financing agencies in Brazil were concerned with the matter.

To this end, FAPESP created the Intellectual Property Support Program (PAPI), generated by the Technology Patent and Licensing Center (Nuplitec) to finance patent registration.

Because few institutions had their own  intellectual property systems, the first patents were registered in FAPESP’s name. This pushed the Foundation to third in the ranking of Brazilian institutions with the largest number of registered patents in the USPTO from 2006 to 2010.

Two years ago, with the creation of internal structures for intellectual property management at research institutions in São Paulo state, FAPESP reorganized its intellectual property policies and allowed institutions to maintain ownership of patents that originated from research funded by the Foundation. These institutions were required to have internal technological innovation centers that FAPESP deemed qualified.
“The only thing that FAPESP was unwilling to give up is the possible benefits that could result from intellectual property related to research it has financed, because this is a legitimate right,” says Brito Cruz.

According to Brito Cruz, one of the lessons learned during FAPESP’s years of dedication to the issue of intellectual property at research organizations in the state is that institutions have a much greater capacity to manage the matter.

“Intellectual property management frequently involves interacting with researchers in a manner that is much more difficult for FAPESP because it does not employ the researchers. In this manner, universities and research institutions can do this much better,” says Brito Cruz.

During the seminar, FAPESP’s scientific director announced the establishment of PAPI’s regulations, for which there will be three types of support.