Technology and Knowledge Diffusion
Technological innovation has a transformative, enduring impact on people’s lives. In the past, inventions could be developed and diffused to society by one entity. Today, cutting-edge innovations flow through complex global R&D and value chains in order to reach people, and technology convergence across sectors is the norm. IPRs play an important role in this flow. They are used by many actors, including companies and research institutes, to manage and share their technologies and know-how, and to move their inventions out of the lab and into society. IP rights provide legal certainty and clarity as to each innovator’s contributions to a project and ownership of the outcome. Having IP protection encourages collaboration across organizations, industry sectors, and borders. Over time, this “open innovation” can drive improvements in human capital and innovative capacity, giving rise to centers of excellence. Innovation Council members share their insights about collaborative innovation and other channels for knowledge diffusion, and the policies and tools that make this possible.
Ten Ways IP Has Enabled Innovations That Have Helped Sustain the World Through the Pandemic
Jaci McDole and Stephen Ezell explain how intellectual property has played an indispensable role in facilitating the development of a range of inventive products, including some that have helped address the healthcare, work, and social challenges brought on by the pandemic. IP is just as important for start-ups as it is for established R&D-intensive industries, because it generates capital and revenue, enabling companies large and small to invest in researching, developing, manufacturing, and marketing their products. Voluntary licensing agreements enabled by IP have allowed the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics to be scaled up globally.
Webinar: How to make money from IP
Join EPO, TIA, SEDA, and AfricaBio on July 7th, from 10am to 1pm CAT, for an online seminar aimed at showcasing how African SMEs have benefited from IP innovation and how you and your business can benefit too.
swiTTreport2020: SWISS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER REPORT
swiTT, the Swiss technology transfer association, has published its annual survey. The report covers two main areas: a) research contracts of the participating institutions with private or public partners, and b) activities for the economic exploitation of research results from these institutions. The Swiss PRO interacts very actively with partners in the economy, and its activities are collectively designated in the report as “technology transfer” (TT) activities.
The European digital health revolution in the wake of COVID-19
Although European health systems have just faced the most challenging public health threat in their modern history, there have been some promising side effects in the form of industry disruptions catalysed by digital health. During this time of crisis, digital health has stepped in to provide expedient healthcare services that offer effectiveness, safety, and even humanity to patients who suffer from chronic conditions or need immediate health care. The European Commission recently recognized this, by proposing the EU4Health programme as part of a larger COVID-19 recovery response programme. The initiative aims to raise €5.1 billion to digitally transform the EU health sector and ensure preparedness for future cross-border health threats.
Africa needs vaccines. What would it take to make them here?
The authors of this article show that, by their estimates, the public market for vaccines in Africa could rise from $1.3 billion today to between $2.3 billion and $5.4 billion by 2030 (depending on the scenario). While Africa’s population is growing faster than that of most other regions, significant immunization coverage gaps remain, and new products (such as vaccines for Lassa fever or malaria) could be introduced and used widely on the continent. Leaders are increasingly aware of the importance of health security, both for its own sake and as a critical tool for securing the continent’s development, and are increasingly heeding calls for investments into vaccine manufacturing to prevent African countries from being last in line for vital supplies.
Public–Private Partnerships for Climate Technology Transfer and Innovation: Lessons from the Climate Technology Centre and Network
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement, and a number of other important agreements call on the United Nations (UN) to strengthen its relationship with the private sector in order to facilitate global action on climate change. The Technology Mechanism (TM), for example, anchored in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is a key enabler for the attainment of the Goals of the Paris Agreement, growing interest in collaboration with the private sector has created new ambitions within the UN’s Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN).
One of the primary reasons to pursue such increased engagement with the private sector is the importance of technology transfer: many of the technologies that can help mitigate climate change exist in various private companies, and sharing this technology safely and responsibly is key to using it on a large scale. This paper reviews and analyses the role of the private sector in facilitating technology transfer that is undertaken as a part of CTCN’s provision of Technical Assistance. Based upon this analysis, several recommendations are made regarding how best to enhance public–private partnerships in order to strengthen private sector participation in climate technology transfer activities, and there is a special focus on technology–push and market–pull innovation.
Read the full story.
Indonesia adopts blockchain to grow music industry IP
Irfan Aulia, who runs Massive Music Entertainment, wants to launch the Portamento project to help Indonesian musicians who have uploaded their works to the database to track and monitor downloads and usage of their music online, in order to calculate royalties due.
“By matching and commercializing the database, the metadata, we believe the Indonesian market for copyrights will increase over five to ten years,” says Irfan. “Basically, we are creating our own big data which will be accessible to all users. This is actually the goldmine.”
Indonesia has around two million music works, of which only 300,000 are recorded. This missing intellectual property could play a key role in the development of the creative economy, says Hasan Kleib, Indonesia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
Read the full story.
Ideas Powered initiative: Believe in the power of ideas
Ideas Powered is an initiative by the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to raise awareness of the value of IP and the importance of respecting it. Trademarks, designs, patents, and copyright, as well as geographical indications and other IP rights, help individuals and businesses develop and grow, and to share their ideas, creations, and products.
Part of Ideas Powered’s mission consists of explaining to young Europeans how to protect their creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, a practice which should be deeply rooted in any education fit for the 21st century.
Innovation for Sustainable Food Production: Shiok Meats, Singapore
On the occasion of the WTO TRIPS Council online side event focusing on the intersection of innovation, IP and sustainability – which will take place on March 9 at 16:00 – we are re-posting some resources about IC member Shiok Meats. Shiok Meats is a Singaporean company that produces cell-based crustacean meat. Shiok Meats plans to bring healthy, nutritious, environmentally-friendly and cruelty-free crustacean meat to tables everywhere in the coming years, disrupting the global shrimp market which is worth an estimated 40b USD annually. This month marks the one-year anniversary since the Singaporean innovators introduced their first shrimp dumpling. Shrimp grown from cells has several advantages over wild caught shrimp or shrimp raised through aquaculture – notably in relation to health, environment, and labor impacts – but further innovation is required to bring down production costs. This is the goal of the team at Shiok Meats over the next 2-3 years.
Read more:
Shiok Meats Raises $4.6 Million Seed Round To Develop Cell-Based Shrimp
How artificial shrimps could change the world
Singapore’s Shiok Meats hopes to hook diners with lab-grown shrimp