The impact of the abolishment of the professor’s privilege on European university-owned patents

Abstract

ww .gr e th a .f r L'impact de la suppression du « Professor's privilege » sur la qualité des brevets universitaires en Europe Résumé Les régimes de propriété intellectuelle régissant les inventions universitaires étaient très diversifiés en Europe à la fin des années '90. Plusieurs pays européens ont maintenu le « Professor's privilege », qui accordait aux enseignant-chercheurs d'université le droit d'être titulaires de brevets. Les années 2000 ont été marquées par la convergence vers un système plus homogène, dans lequel les administrations universitaires ont pris le contrôle de la gestion de la propriété intellectuelle. Nous étudions l'impact de la réforme et constatons un déclin de l'importance technologique et de la valeur des brevets détenus et gérés par des universités dans les pays qui abolissent le privilège du professeur. Au contraire, en différenciant les brevets académiques par type de propriété, nous constatons que l'importance technologique des brevets académiques détenus par des entreprises a plutôt augmenté. Notre étude produit de nouveaux résultats qui peuvent alerter les législateurs sur les éventuelles imprévues du modèle attribuant la propriété intellectuelle aux universités (« university ownership model »). Mots-clés: Brevets universitaires ; qualité des brevets; gestion des brevets; valeur du brevet; transfert de technologie The impact of the abolishment of the professor's privilege on European university-owned patents

University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege

“…These theories suggest that rights should be balanced toward the party whose investment matters more. 9 Online Appendix I formalizes this reasoning in the university context, where the rights allocation is divided between the researcher and the research institution, who both may make separate investments in pursuit of a commercial outcome. Investments by the individual researcher, as the source of the ideas, appear critical.…”

“…In light of these potential advantages, encouraging investments by universities may be important, so that giving all income rights to the professor (as in the professor's privilege) may reduce university-based innovation compared these privately-owned patents are accounted for, university researchers in these three European countries (especially Sweden) show only modestly lower patenting rates than US universities, which undercuts the empirical view that European universities were laggards in commercialization activities in the first place. 9 Other things equal, giving a greater share of the surplus to the party whose investment affects the surplus more will encourage more surplus creation. It is possible to undo this intuition, however, if a particular agent's effort responds relatively weakly to their share (for example, if a party faces a multitasking problem and would not devote effort to creating this particular joint surplus even if given substantial rights to it).…”

A patent-based analysis of the evolution of basic, mission-oriented, and applied research in European universities

“…The sample of countries selected does not differ from other works based on European academic patents (e.g. Lissoni & Montobbio, 2015 ; Martínez & Sterzi, 2021 ). The sample consists of 1.1 million patents, of which 27 thousand are university-owned (2.5%).…”

The transfer and value of academic inventions when the TTO is one option

“…1 1 See, for example, Czarnitzki et al (2016), Ejermo and Toivanen (2018), Hvide and Jones (2018), and Martı́nez and Sterzi (2020). …”

“…See, for example,Czarnitzki et al (2016),Ejermo and Toivanen (2018),Hvide and Jones (2018), andMartıńez and Sterzi (2020).2 This relies on the assumption that the TTO is more efficient than the professor at searching. However, when relaxing this assumption, the author shows that delegation to the TTO is inefficient, and that the optimal outcome is for the TTO to transfer the intellectual property rights back to the professor.…”