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The valuation of patents and the implementation of a strategy for technology transfer

Intellectual Property (IP) plays a key role in the innovation process, enabling universities and companies to define, as one of its priorities, the development of a strategy of technology transfer, from the results of R&D activities.
The relationship between the University and Companies has been enhanced, due to managing of their applied research, according to their market position, avoiding investment in R&D redundancy and improving the quality of information associated with the intellectual capital.

This increased collaboration is the result of recognition of the importance of university research to innovative activities of industry, and also the response to structural changes/contextual, such as the scarcity of financing with public capital, forcing universities to adopt a more aggressive and “business” attitude in the search for new sources of funds for research.

Thus, in the current economic context, the success and competitiveness of the University and Company is based mainly on the creation of innovative business models, process-based and differentiated products, which gives them a competitive advantage in their critical success factors in relation to their direct and potential competitors.

For the success of this objective, the processes and / or products created, protected by patents, should be analyzed and evaluated economically. To this end, there are different methods of evaluation, at an early stage tend to be methods of first-rapid assessment, based on checklists and production of short reports about the market potential and economic return. At a later stage, the evaluation tends to be more careful, resorting to other methods such as the identification of comparable agreements (royalties charged in the industry, licensing agreements, sales, etc.) and the projected discounted cash flows generated by exploration.

The different methods of assessment on the market may be used individually, or a combination of various methods, bearing in mind that the results are estimates that meet a certain degree of subjectivity, but which provide indicators and guidelines to determine what is a reasonable value to establish a fair agreement (fair price) between both parties.

In this context, the IP strategy should be aligned with business strategy, which aims at the return on investment.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles