The business of science
If a researcher wants to become an entrepreneur, they should apply to join a lab with a similar philosophy on entrepreneurship. I hold 18 patents and co-founded a start-up that focuses on tissue-engineering technologies, and I’m happy to share my experience. I teach my students to do patent searches and encourage them to attend training workshops, such as those organized by the university’s IP office or organizations such as the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. In this way, they can learn from and network with successful technology entrepreneurs.
A’an Johan Wahyudi patented his invention only in his home country.Credit: Arief Rachman
A’AN JOHAN WAHYUDI: Solve problems that are close at hand
Senior research scientist at the National Research and Innovation Agency’s Research Centre for Oceanography in Jakarta, Indonesia.
I work in the National Research and Innovation Agency, a newly formed body in Indonesia, and we have a patent office with fewer than 15 staff who help to draft patents. In 2020, I filed a patent for a technique that uses isotopes to calculate how much farmers should feed sea cucumbers — edible marine animals — to optimize their growth. Although sea cucumbers are farmed in several countries, including Australia and Vietnam, I decided to file the patent in Indonesia only. This was a strategic decision, because countries have their own patent-application processes and we do not have the expertise to file patents in global markets.
Many research institutes in developing nations, such as mine, care more about academic publications than patents, and have limited funding dedicated to patent applications. The key to overcoming this obstacle is to be pragmatic and hands-on in one’s approach to invention. My team spoke to sea-cucumber farmers before embarking on our project, for example, to gain an understanding of the challenges they were facing. Although my patent will not solve a global problem such as climate change, I am confident that when it is licensed and deployed, it will add value to local farmers and their businesses.
In my research centre, we regularly communicate with local farmers and businesses in the marine-agriculture industry about their challenges. This system has worked well for us, and could be effective for other researcher-entrepreneurs from developing nations who hope to make a difference with their inventions.
CHRISTINA HEDBERG: Make early contact with a technology-licensing officer
Technology-licensing officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
Licensing officers at universities, such as myself, are valuable partners for scientist-entrepreneurs. We evaluate invention disclosures for patentability and commercial opportunity, and decide whether to file patents on behalf of our institutions. We also negotiate patent-licence agreements between universities and start-ups, and can provide guidance to researchers as to how the process works and what the relevant institutional policies are.
Many of us have decades of experience in industry and we enjoy sharing our expertise and perspective. We can provide introductions to valuable resources, such as strategic investors, pitch competitions and mentoring, which is why it’s important to build a relationship with your licensing officer as early as possible.
When researchers reach out to me with their ideas early, it gives me more time and a better opportunity to understand the science, the potential impact of their work and their entrepreneurship goals. The more we know about the research and where a potential invention fits in, the easier it is to decide whether to file a patent. Working and strategizing with scientists on this is one of my favourite parts of my role as a technology-licensing officer. There have been times when I have advised a researcher that we should file a patent application early, because I understood the science and the commercial context and I thought it would be strategically advantageous to gain that IP as soon as possible.
Although licensing officers can be valuable allies, we also need scientist-entrepreneurs to be cooperative. We need inventors to be available and responsive when we draft patent applications, and to respond to questions from the patent office. Furthermore, inventors can facilitate the process by helping to clarify the commercial application of their technology, which enables us to draft stronger applications. Finally, they should keep us informed of upcoming publications and presentations, so that we have time to file patents ahead of public disclosures.
Intellectual property. Creations of the mind such as inventions or literary works.
Invention disclosure. A confidential document written by inventors and containing details of an invention before it is submitted for patent protection.
Provisional patent. A document issued by a patent office to protect a new invention from being copied, often during a 12-month period, before a formal patent application is filed.
Patent. A government-granted recognition of intellectual property that gives inventors legal rights to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention for a set period. Those inventors must be the first to make public disclosure of a ‘new’ invention.
Patent licence. An agreement under which a patent owner allows patented intellectual property to be used in exchange for payment.
Start-up. A small, innovation-rooted company in its first few years of business that provides goods or services.
Spin-off. A start-up created out of another organization such as a university or research institute.
Incubators and accelerators. Institutions that provide start-ups with resources such as mentorship, funding and space to ramp up their businesses.
To know whether your ideas are considered new and patentable, equip yourself with basic patent-search skills:
• Choose a patent search engine or database. Google Patents is a user-friendly option for beginners. A more advanced approach is to search international patent databases directly, such as those of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
• Start with a simple keyword search. Keywords to try are usually technical terms related to your invention. Databases such as Espacenet (from the EPO) and that of the Japan Patent Office provide machine translation of European and Japanese patents into English.
• Follow the patent trail. Simple keyword searches might not yield all the results you want, so track the references, authors and companies cited in previous or related patents. That should provide leads to diversify your search and gain a more complete assessment of your idea or invention.
• Consider specialist search engines. Companies such as Octimine in Munich, Germany, and Patentfield in Kyoto, Japan, offer artificial-intelligence-based products for patent searches. These companies say their machine-learning algorithms sort and classify related patents accurately, and provide key information such as how many times a patent has been cited as well as a patent timeline (including the expiry date).
doi: //doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03438-x