Brussels, 03/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the informal Competitiveness Council held in Wurtzburg at the end of April, the German presidency put it to member states that it draw up a charter for the management of intellectual property in research cooperation. The aim of the charter, which would take the form of a European voluntary code of conduct, is to promote the transfer of the results of research into marketable products and services and, ultimately, encourage EU competitiveness by setting out principles of good management of intellectual property in scientific cooperation in the research sector. This initiative follows the European Charter for Researchers (see EUROPE 8907) and is to be placed in the context of the debate launched by the European Commission on the future of the European Research Area (see EUROPE 9401).
A German presidency working document sets out the following “basic principles” on which partners in a research project could voluntarily base their cooperation: - careful and responsible management of research results and inventions; - promotion of long-term and sustainable research cooperation; - mutual respect, understanding and transparency in research cooperation; - creation of organisational structures and mechanisms for professional IP management; - further training for researchers to raise awareness of IP issues in research cooperation and to prevent an uncontrolled know-how drain; - promotion of the commercialisation and public exploitation of protected inventions to increase competitiveness ands economic success; - promotion of the exploitation of research results through start-ups and spin-offs.
The charter envisaged by the German presidency also provides a number of “recommendations” to be taken into account whatever the type of research cooperation: - participants should conduct fair negotiations to agree on the scope and objectives of research cooperation, while taking account of the legitimate interests of all; - the cooperation partners should, as early as possible, define the objectives and expectations of all participants in order to avoid any subsequent misunderstanding and disappointment; - persons responsible for the management of intellectual property should be involved at an early stage in negotiations on the research programme; - any contractual or legal obligations which may interfere with the contract already concluded should be disclosed to the cooperation partners; - important individual details, such as secrecy, publication or (joint) property rights, should be agreed in writing. In addition to these general recommendations, the German presidency sets out special recommendations dependent on the type of scientific research project, whether collaborative (between public and industry bodies), contract research (from industry to public institutes or research centres) or research promotion with private sector funds.
The German presidency suggests, too, that “an advisory service should be established as a central service of the European Commission, for example at the Joint Research Centre, to provide advice on IP issues in international research cooperation”. (mb)