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Brochure
IP Management in European Research
Co-operations
European Conference
7th and 8th September 2009, Berlin
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EUROPEAN CONFERENCE
IP Management in European Research Co-operations
BACKGROUND
In light of the Commission’s objective to raise European investment in
research towards 3% of GDP, the funding of, investment in and focus
on industry-university relations has increased significantly. The possibili-
ties for transnational and international cooperation between enterprises,
SMEs, universities, research institutions and clusters have widened, but
so has the potential for patent piracy.
Intellectual Property has become increasingly important. A for Europe
typical fragmentation of the Knowledge Triangle (Higher Education, Re-
search, Business-Innovation) has led to the outflow of knowledge. Lin-
king businesses, research institutions and universities and furthering
their cooperation is seen as a remedy for loosing IP as well as boosting
European innovation.
With programmes such as the FP7 or CIP the Commission intends to
elevate innovation and make Europe a more innovative and creative
place. But for many research projects the participants still decide to make
do without EU funding due to the administrative burden involved and
seek out alternative means of financial support. These R&D coopera-
tions depend on individual agreements, meaning there are no structured
programmes involved. This can and often does lead to difficulties, espe-
cially with respect to intellectual property. In order to try and avoid con-
flicts between collaborating parties as well as trying to protect and secure
intellectual property, individual research consortia have come up with a
number of different models for cooperation (e.g. model collaborative ag-
reement by the German Ministry of the Economy, the Lambert Toolkit for
Collaborative Research, Berliner Vertrag, EU model agreements). Howe-
ver, they are only guidelines for collaborations in R&D. Clear strategies
behind formulating agreements are necessary to av