{"id":146947,"date":"2014-04-17T16:33:42","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T19:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=146947"},"modified":"2014-04-24T18:31:05","modified_gmt":"2014-04-24T21:31:05","slug":"paths-intellectual-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/paths-intellectual-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Paths to intellectual protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Daniel Bueno<\/span>The more patents researchers have, the more likely it is that they will leave academia to sell the results of the studies and receive better compensation. At least this is what an article in the January 2 issue of the journal Nature<\/em> shows. The article comments on a study conducted with Belgian researchers in the period from 1996 to 2005. No such trend has yet been seen in Brazil, but researchers and universities are in fact paying more attention to filing patents before publishing in scientific periodicals. This is a culture in the making. For researchers who at the end of a project believe that it is possible to obtain intellectual protection for the results, specialists recommend that the first step should be to analyze three things: Determine whether the invention is really novel, whether it can be classified as an inventive activity, and whether there is an industrial application for it.<\/p>\n

The Centers for Technology Innovation (NITs) that are affiliated with universities and research institutes, also called innovation agencies or intellectual property coordinating offices, are responsible for evaluating applications in terms of the requirements and for the interaction between the public and private sector. \u201cThe notification form that researchers complete contains the information our specialists need in order to be able to understand the technology, conduct research using Brazilian and foreign public patent databases and, if protection is being sought, identify the most appropriate strategy,\u201d says Patr\u00edcia Leal Gestic, Director of Innovation and Intellectual Property at the Innovation Agency (Inova) of the University of Campinas (Unicamp).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I file for an invention, Inova recommends that I also research prior art documents in international patent databases such as Derwent and USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office),\u201d explains Professor Oswaldo Alves, coordinator of the Solid State Chemistry Laboratory and the Nanostructure Synthesis and Biosystems Interaction Laboratory at Unicamp. Alves knows what he is talking about: He has already filed 25 patents, three of which are international, and have been granted five letters patent; he has also signed a technology transfer agreement with Contech, a company based in Valinhos in inland S\u00e3o Paulo State.<\/p>\n

Gestic points out that the agency recommends that researchers use public patent databases, not only for analyzing technologies having patent potential, but also before starting a new research project. \u201cWhen these databases are consulted beforehand, researchers can then begin to plan their research with emphasis on unpublished works and the possible application of the technology,\u201d says Vera Cr\u00f3sta, a consultant in the area of innovation and technology transfer at VC Consultoria and the National Association of Research and Development of Innovative Companies (ANPEI). \u201cThe focus is on the advancement of knowledge and going beyond what has already been done,\u201d advises Cr\u00f3sta, who has a degree in industrial pharmacy and specializes in the quality and management of innovation. \u201cIf the research is limited to academic databases of articles, researchers will be one or two years behind the state of the art,\u201d Cr\u00f3sta notes. In many countries, there is already a culture that dictates that a patent must be filed before scientific articles are published, particularly in areas of technology. \u201cA scientific article should not be submitted for publication until the National Industrial Property Institute (INPI) has assigned a registration number,\u201d says Alves.<\/p>\n

Cr\u00f3sta points out that it is important for the NITs to have staff available who are qualified to assess the technology and its potential \u201cbecause you have to keep an eye on the market to know what its possible applications are.\u201d Everything that needs to be protected in a patent is described in the patent claim. \u201cIf the claims are prepared only from an academic viewpoint, the scope of coverage may be limited,\u201d Cr\u00f3sta notes. It is necessary to understand the opportunities for application in the market as well.<\/p>\n

Technologies that have many different uses and can serve different sectors expand the range of applications, and they usually have greater sales potential. Confidentiality, intellectual property and participation in the results are, in the consultant\u2019s opinion, the most sensitive points in a negotiation. \u201cIf the specialists decide that the invention does not satisfy the requirements for protection, we will still attempt to develop strategies to sell the know-how,\u201d says Gestic from Inova.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Specialists recommend searching patent databases before starting research","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1204],"tags":[],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-146947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146947"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=146947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}