Table 5-33: Ownership of academic intellectual property in OECD countries: 2003

Table 5-33

Ownership of academic intellectual property in OECD countries: 2003

	Owner of invention

Country	University	Faculty	Government	Status/recent initiatives

Australia	x	na	na
Austria	x	na	na
Belgium	x	na	na
Canada^a	x	x	na
Denmark	x	na	na
Finland	na	x	na	Consideration of legislation in 2003 to restrict faculty's right to retain ownership of publicly funded research.
France	x	na	na
Germany	x	na	na	Debate during 2001 over awarding ownership to universities.
Iceland	na	x	na
Ireland	x	na	na
Italy	na	x	na	Legislation passed in 2001 to give ownership rights to researchers. Legislation introduced in 2002 to grant ownership to universities and create technology transfer offices.
Japan^b	na	x	o	Private technology transfer offices authorized in 1998.
Mexico	x	na	na
Netherlands	x	na	na
Norway	na	x	na	Legislation passed in 2003 to allow universities to retain ownership of publicly funded research.
Poland	x	na	na
South Korea	x	na	na
Sweden	na	x	na	Recent debate and consideration of legislation to allow universities to retain ownership of publicly funded research.
United Kingdom	x	o	na	Universities, rather than government, given rights to faculty inventions in 1985.
United States^c	x	o	o

x legal basis or most common practice
o allowed by law/rule but less common
na not applicable

^aOwnership of intellectual property funded by institutional funds varies, but publicly funded intellectual property belongs to institution performing research.
^bPresident of the national university or interuniversity institution determines right to ownership of invention by faculty member, based on discussions by invention committee.
^cUniversities have first right to elect title to inventions resulting from federally funded research. Federal Government may claim title if university does not. In certain cases, inventor may retain rights with agreement of university/Federal partner and Government.

SOURCES: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Questionnaire on the Patenting and Licensing Activities of PRO’s (Paris, 2002); and D. C. Mowery and B. N. Sampat, International emulation of Bayh-Dole: Rash or rational? Paper presented at American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium on International Trends in the Transfer of Academic Research, Boston, February 2002.

Science & Engineering Indicators – 2004

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