Events in Physics
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - But Mostly the Good
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – But Mostly the Good
The Experiences of Four Academics
Who Have Tried to Exploit IP
Steve Dixon, Dave Haddleton, Mark Newton, Ross Hatton
The four academics listed above have all had slightly different experiences and approaches to dealing with intellectual property (IP), spin-outs, licensing and generally working with commercial and industrial partners. Each academic will give a fairly informal and brief 10-15 minute overview of what they have done with regards to exploiting IP that their research has generated, and will hopefully convey some of the potential benefits of trying to exploit IP and working with industrial partners.
The stories that you will hear won't sugar coat the issues, and will hopefully get across that at times it can be frustrating and hard work dealing with IP and industrial collaboration. What it should also convince you of is that it can be very rewarding, and can be made to help with more fundamental research goals - something we all need to be very conscious of with the issue of "impact" with the REF and EPSRC.
Whatever research you are doing, at some stage you will almost certainly have the opportunity to develop commercially valuable IP or collaborate with a company that can help you to develop the IP. This is an opportunity to ask researchers who have had a degree of success with IP, any questions that you may have, or simply a chance just to see some examples of what they have been up to. Everyone is of course welcome, especially academics who are sceptical about IP and industrial collaboration.