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\n <\/picture><\/div>The survey also estimated the impact of papers authored by researchers with patents to their name and found that they generate five times more citations than papers by researchers with no patents. Only a handful of these talents, however, are in industry. Less than 10% of researchers work in an R&D capacity at companies, 73% work at universities, and 15% work at public or private research institutes. \u201cResearchers at universities and higher learning institutions in Brazil account for approximately two-thirds of the country\u2019s patents, even though many of these universities lack institutional support for the patenting process,\u201d says Roney Fraga Souza.<\/p>\n
But Marcelo Pinho, of the Center for Exact Sciences and Technology at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar), observes that previous research done in 2013 by researchers from the Ribeir\u00e3o Preto School of Economics, Management, and Accounting (FEA-RP) at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) had already looked for\u2014but did not find\u2014a cause-and-effect relationship between publishing and patenting among a group of 316 researchers in the fields of exact and earth sciences. \u201cAlthough researchers who interact more with companies are clearly more prolific publishers, this does not necessarily mean that scientific productivity is itself a result of interaction with industry,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt is more likely that the most competent researchers perform better both in scientific research and in collaborations with industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
A look at the origin of Brazilian patents reveals a strong linkage to traditional industries, such as construction and machinery for the oil and gas, electric power, and agribusiness sectors, but not to frontier areas. \u201cBrazil appears to be on the sidelines of the new economy and is yet to claim a significant position in any of the key areas of industry 4.0, in which manufacturing is heavily automated and linked to the internet,\u201d says Buainain. Marcelo Pinho of UFSCar says that patent patterns in Brazil reflect the country\u2019s industrial fabric and its foreign trade. He notes that Brazil\u2019s high-tech industry is not only dwarfed by other countries but also typically focused on the domestic market and less technology-intensive nodes in the value chain. \u201cAnd the companies with dominant positions in these sectors are multinationals producing most of their R&D outside Brazil. So it is hardly surprising that Brazil lacks a strong patent position in the new economy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>
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\n <\/picture><\/div>The study found a notable increase in intellectual property protection within universities thanks to the growing number of innovation centers (N\u00facleos de Inova\u00e7\u00e3o Tecnol\u00f3gica<\/em>, or NITs) created to identify research findings with potential commercial applications and license those technologies to companies. Universities have been especially active in certain states following the creation of innovation centers in Santa Catarina, Para\u00edba, Pernambuco, Bahia, and Cear\u00e1, although 70% of patent applications in 2017 were in S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Paran\u00e1, and Rio Grande do Sul. Buainain sees these efforts as somewhat exaggerated: \u201cThe role of the university is to generate and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge and technology. Practical innovation is the role not of universities but of industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Biologist Antonio Carlos Marques, coordinator of the USP Agency for Innovation, believes it is unfair to say that NITs alone can account for the exaggerated focus on patent applications. \u201cPatents are a highly weighted metric throughout the system\u2014whether one is applying for a productivity-based grant from CNPq [the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development] or looking to improve a graduate program\u2019s rank\u2014and they get lots of media attention,\u201d he says. \u201cOur focus should be on the effectiveness of the innovation process. Out of the total number of patent applications, how many are successful and benefit society through licensing agreements? To what extent does each patent effectively provide a socioeconomic or environmental benefit for Brazil? By way of analogy, a patent application is comparable to a manuscript submitted to a scientific journal, and an issued but unlicensed patent is comparable to a paper published in an indexed journal that has never been cited.\u201d<\/p>\n Brazil is not prepared to exploit open innovation, the study shows<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Antonio Marcio Buainain notes that universities and companies in Brazil engage in innovation on separate, parallel paths that rarely converge. \u201cUniversities generate patents at their intellectual property offices and offer them to companies, occasionally attracting their interest in some form of arrangement, but not collaboration,\u201d he explains. At universities and public research institutes, according to the paper, there has been progress in recent years largely thanks to the education system\u2019s expansion since the 1990s and its growing number of active researchers. The private sector, however, has its own peculiar ways. As Buainain explains, \u201cBrazilian companies generally innovate by buying technology. They typically incorporate innovations already in use in local and global markets\u2014new only to the companies adopting them. This is certainly not the kind of innovation that will put Brazilian industry in any position of leadership or autonomy in the international marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n The UNICAMP economist explains that aversion to risk is a rational strategy that makes sense for the business environment in which Brazilian companies operate. \u201cThe Real Plan [a set of measures taken to stabilize the Brazilian economy in 1994] provided only limited economic stability,\u201d he says, alluding to the exchange-rate fluctuation and changes in the regulatory frameworks for the oil and gas and power sectors over the last 20 years. \u201cEven inflation has been five times higher than the average for more developed countries,\u201d he explains. \u201cBrazilian entrepreneurs are skilled at coping with crises and surviving in an environment of uncertainty and instability, but averse to the inherent risk of innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div> But intellectual property protection has been rendered less important now than in the past by the advent of open knowledge networks, in which knowledge and technology are developed in an open and collaborative environment, and the speed at which innovations are developed and then superseded by others makes patenting effort dispensable. \u201cThe value of digital-age businesses like Uber or Airbnb lies not in their patent portfolios but in their accumulated knowledge and in their ability to create applications that competitors are unable to easily reproduce,\u201d he explains. Brazil is not currently prepared to exploit open innovation, the paper shows. \u201cOpen innovation relies on an environment of high-density knowledge flows between academia and industry\u2014an environment which in Brazil remains underdeveloped\u2014and substantial investment in venture capital.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/026-029_Propriedade-intelectual_276_02_ING-3-desktop.png\")
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