Academic Inventions outside the University: A Result of Industry Sponsorship or Entrepreneurial Activities?

Dipartimento di Economia, S. Cognetti de Martiis, Working paper No. 16/2012

25 Pages Posted: 1 Dec 2012

See all articles by Cornelia Lawson

Cornelia Lawson

The University of Manchester - Alliance Manchester Business School

Date Written: October 30, 2012

Abstract

This paper investigates the link between firms and academic inventors on firm-assigned academic patents for a sample of UK academics. The first descriptive results show that 43% of firm assigned patents are in fact owned by a university spin-off. The empirical analysis finds that a strong appropriation regime at a university encourages patents owned by the university or its spin-offs. Public research funds and technology transfer grants are also associated with university or spin-off owned patents. Government incentives and funding regulations thus are a successful strategy to encourage and maintain university ownership of patents. Industry sponsorship on the other hand encourages firm ownership of patents, whether these are private firms or university spin-offs. A more detailed analysis of funding links shows that 41% of non-spin-off firms also have funding agreements with the university; however, the remaining 59% of firms have no apparent link to researchers that could explain ownership of university inventions.

Keywords: Academic patenting, University-industry collaboration, sponsored research, academic entrepreneurship, Patent ownership

JEL Classification: I23, 031, 034

Suggested Citation

Lawson, Cornelia, Academic Inventions outside the University: A Result of Industry Sponsorship or Entrepreneurial Activities? (October 30, 2012). Dipartimento di Economia, S. Cognetti de Martiis, Working paper No. 16/2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2183080 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2183080

Cornelia Lawson (Contact Author)

The University of Manchester - Alliance Manchester Business School ( email )

Booth Street West
Manchester, M15 6PB
United Kingdom

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