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The initiative for the guide was the apparent need: practical information about intellectual property rights such as patents and copyrights and their commercialization has been difficult to find. Also, there are more specific demands of managing research data and utilizing research results by the funding organizations. Combining the commercialization and open science practices requires new skills.

The authors of the guide are legal counsels Niina Mikkonen and Maria Rehbinder, and Senior Innovation Advisor Panu Kuosmanen. Maria Rehbinder tells why it is important to agree about intellectual property rights in research: “If the research results should be used or exploited by others than the researcher, intellectual property issues simply have to be agreed on. If the results are not exploited, research will not have any desired societal impact and commercialization will not succeed.”

The new guide is a practical tool for protecting intellectual property. With the help of the guide the researchers as well as innovation advisors can more easily find information about how immaterial assets must be protected and what actions need to be taken by different parties. The guide includes facts about the invention form, copyrights, software, design and brand rights as well as the commercialization. The Aalto University commercialization process cover the whole timeline from research and licensing all the way to establishing a startup company. Research and innovation services team has answered the questions about the guide’s themes every day. Now the work is easier with the guide’s concentrated practical form.

Panu Kuosmanen comments that the guide is especially useful as a practical tool for researchers. It answers the questions how commercialization leads to real value, what kind of new ways of working must be applied and particularly, how things shouldn’t be done: “Researcher, study the guide and think how you can apply the text to your work in practice so that the commercialization process will be a success!”

Link to the IP Guide

Aalto University Principles for Commercialization of Intellectual Property