An innovative new project spearheaded by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd and researchers in the Department of Chemistry is taking a proactive approach to intellectual property (IP) and commercialisation.
An innovative new project spearheaded by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd and researchers in the Department of Chemistry is taking a proactive approach to intellectual property (IP) and commercialisation.
The power of this discovery platform is that it offers the prospect of a completely new approach to experimental science by allowing quantitative analytical experiments to be carried out in a high-throughput way.
Professor Abell
Too often researchers discover that prospects for patenting and commercial exploitation of their inventions are compromised before they have even begun, either because they have prematurely disclosed the information or because ‘prior art’ exists that invalidates their application. What if researchers could instead build into their research process a review of the patent landscape at an early stage, rather than wait until issues are forced by the desire to publish? The IP position and commercial potential could then be used to inform strategic decisions about the direction of their research.
Cambridge Enterprise is working to do just this with Professors Chris Abell and Wilhelm Huck in the Department of Chemistry. With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Cambridge Microdroplets Project will be used as a test-bed for proactive IP analysis. A full analysis of the relevant patent space will be conducted, together with an exploration of the best criteria for identifying and protecting IP during the course of the project; business models for commercialisation that are synergistic with the research will then be built.
The Microdroplets Project is ideal to model this approach to IP because of its numerous and diverse IP and commercial opportunities. Microdroplets – small water droplets generated in microfluidic systems – have the potential to act as individual reaction chambers in which discrete chemical or biological transformations can be conducted. ‘The power of this discovery platform is that it offers the prospect of a completely new approach to experimental science by allowing quantitative analytical experiments to be carried out in a high-throughput way,’ explained Professor Abell.
Microdroplet research is developing rapidly and has strong international competition from the USA, Europe and Asia. ‘Understanding the patent landscape in any emerging field can inform the strategy for patenting and partnering for commercialisation,’ explained Teri Willey, Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise. ‘In this case, the intention is to optimise the value of the research results as the programme evolves. It represents a strategy by which dissemination of the results can be maximised in parallel with development of a longer term commercialisation strategy. In traditional approaches, these things have sometimes been mutually exclusive.’
This model builds on processes generally adopted in academic research and is one that may well become an exemplar as more IP-sensitive translational research is undertaken by the University.
For more information, please contact Cambridge Enterprise Ltd (email: enquiries@enterprise.cam.ac.uk; Tel: +44 (0)1223 760339;www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk)
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