Executive Summary

Intellectual property (IP) rights – of which patents, industrial designs, copyrights and trademarks are among the most widespread – reward investment in R&ampD and innovation by granting inventors and creators market power over competitors. Over the past decade in many OECD countries, universities, national laboratories and other research organisations receiving significant public research funds (hereafter referred to as “public research organisations – PROs”) have become more aware of the value of their intellectual property. In large part, this awareness reflects the recognition by governments that, in some cases, placing the outputs of publicly funded research in the public domain is not sufficient to generate social and economic benefits from research...