The Internet search engine Lycos began as a research project by a professor at the Carnegie Mellon University in 1994. Five years later, it became the most visited site in the world, with a global presence in more than 40 countries.

All over the world, governments are showing greater interest in university spinoffs. European governments are pouring resources into universities with the goal of turning them into engines of economic growth through spinoff company formation. The Japanese government recently changed its intellectual property laws to favor spinoff company formation.

As countries progress from agricultural economies to technological ones, it becomes crucial for them to accelerate research and development led by their universities. But more importantly, they must translate their technological findings into industrial development. This helps the country shift from a production-based to an innovation-based economy.

In developed countries, governments recognize that granting R&D institutions the rights to IP generated with public funds leads to better use of research results and spurs start-up businesses that create employment.
This is called academic entrepreneurship: the process of creating economic value through organizational creation, invention, and innovation that occurs within an academic institution, resulting in research and technology commercialization.

So far, the weakest link in our country’s innovation system is the transferring and commercializing of the results of research and development efforts, particularly those undertaken by government-funded institutions.

Currently, only an estimated 10 percent of university-research output are being transferred into industries because of intellectual-property issues. We are losing valuable intellectual property created by our own geniuses because of an inhospitable climate for innovation and invention. Their inventions end up getting patented by foreign companies who have the resources to develop them.

The US Bayh-Dole Act allows government funded agencies, such as universities, to retain intellectual property rights to inventions derived from the fruits of government-funded research. This was a major factor for the reinvigoration of R&D in the US, and ushered the successful commercialization of research output.

The Technology Transfer Act, which I recently co-sponsored in the Senate, borrows heavily from the US Bayh-Dole Act. This bill vests the ownership of intellectual property rights in research institutions that conducted research funded in part or in full by government. It further authorizes them to use income from their research to conduct more R&D of its choice.

The Tech-Transfer bill will ensure that knowledge gained from research finds a useful and practical application – making Philippine industries more competitive. Through it, we hope to unleash our universities’ entrepreneurial capabilities and bolster our technological competitiveness.

Email: edgardo_angara@hotmail.com Website: www.edangara.com