“The privilege of the scientist” shorten the path to commercialization rights of R&D
Enfranchisement of scientists, which is also called “privilege of the scientist”, aims to change the ownership structure of rights developed by researchers hired in the National Research…
…and Development Units (abbr. PJB). Under the current legal status, only copyrights are the property of the researcher, while industrial property rights are the property of the institution where the researcher is employed. After implementation of the changes, the scientists will own all rights to the results of their work .
Previous studies indicated that the PJBs are not very active in the field of technology commercialization and transfer of innovative solutions to the economy. Therefore, in the opinion of the Polish legislature, a change of the ownership structure of intellectual property rights should have a good impact on the situation. According to the plan, profits from the commercialization would be shared between the researcher and the university. With granting of exclusive rights to researchers, the university will have the right of first refusal or the right of pre-emption to acquire such rights. In addition, the university will be still able to use the results of research and development work for teaching or research purposes.
This will be another amendment to the Law on Higher Education, after implementation of requirement in 2010 to establish a special purpose companies to commercialize the results of the researchers, in order to stimulate innovation and competitiveness of the Polish economy. New amendment is also very important for the Polish business sector, as it can greatly facilitate and shorten the path to commercialization of the solutions developed by scientists employed in the PJBs.
Photo: (CC) flickr.com by U.S. Army RDECOM