Abstract
Universities have an obligation to ensure that Intellectual Property (IP) outputs are properly captured and exploited according to various National and European guidelines. There are two main ways which University technology development can take on the road to commercialisation: 1. Licensing the technology to an existing company: A license is permission to do something the granting party (the licensor) has the right to otherwise prohibit. In the context of IP licensing, it is a grant, by the owner of the property, to another (the licensee) of the right to use the IP in question for commercial purposes; 2. Starting a new company: An important university objective is to explore and pursue opportunities for the exploitation of its intellectual property rights. For universities and its inventors, spin out companies often provide an effective means to achieve this objective. A spin out is created when the University creates a new company out of one of its existing departments, institutions or by an inventor. The decision of which path to take is critical and various elements can effect this decision such as the inventors own objectives, the market niche for the technology, the stage of technical development, the potential reward for each option and the types of support structures available. This talk will summarise the main points to consider when deciding on the most appropriate way to commercialise technologies developed in Universities.
