After successful completion of the course, students are able to understand the essentials for exploitation of R&D results. The students can

• explain the prerequisites and special features of intellectual property rights,
• identify the main steps of patent procedures and explain the structure of a patent,
• name the essential provisions of a licence agreement and explain possible restrictions and remuneration options,
• explain the purpose of confidentiality agreements and R&D contracts with regard to technology exploitation and indicate the key points of the contracts,
• list use cases for patent searches, possible search tools and search strategies and solve simple search tasks,
• identify key steps in IP management and IP strategy development,
• explain how to create and implement a IP strategy, and
• list essential steps of information search and assessment for early detection of technologies.

Providing a general overview of the prerequisites, options, strategies and tasks involved in exploitation, as well as the legal and institutional framework; developing a detailed understanding of selected aspects; preparing participants for the assessment and commercial exploitation of know-how and patents from a research institution and compared with exploitation in a company.

Topics:

Overview of intellectual property rights, patent procedures, patent structure, licensing agreements, aspects of secrecy and R&D agreements, patent search, early technology detection, technology management, IP strategy, IP management.

Lecture, group work on patent examples, search tasks, licensing game

limited participants;

Attendance required at minimum 75%.

Target groups: advanced students and scientists

Attendance required at minimum 75%.

written examination, registration on TISS

- presentation slides as handout

- The inventors' handbook, published by the European Patent Office, provides a comprehensive insight in the main topics of the lecture at http://www.epo.org/learning-events/materials/inventors-handbook.html