Poland’s minister for science and higher education Barbara Kudrycka has unveiled plans to modify the country’s intellectual property law by handing the rights to IP to the inventor over the institution.
Similar to Sweden’s Professor’s Privilege law, the new Polish legislation will provide inventors a greater share in the financial rewards from their work.
The change comes in an attempt to generate a more innovation-focused environment around Poland’s universities that puts it more on a level with EU peers in the west and Scandinavia.
Kudrycka said [translated from Polish]: “Currently, we have a certain dualism here. The copyright belongs to the scientist, but property rights belong to the institution which employs the scientist, for instance a university. In many countries, the [system] which is applied in Poland is also applied, but there are also countries which have a different [system]. We want … to enfranchise scientists and give them the property rights to their inventions. This will serve as an impulse to commercialise the developed technological solutions. We also want business to define the fields of research which are the most vital from its point of view.”
However, academic circles in the country are critical of the proposal. One such argument, made by the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRASP), suggests that the new legislation will shift the financial burden of commercialisation onto the scientists themselves. Currently, universities carry the burden of initial costs of tech transfer and, as previously reported on GUV, does not have a strong venture community (ranked 104th in the world) to compensate.
KRASP said in a statement [translated from Polish]: “Contrary to the intentions of the [ministry], there is reason for concern that the proposed modification will shift the entire risk and cost of commercialising [the results of research] on its author, whom the university will be able to support only in a limited way. [This] will discourage inventors from undertaking any actions related to commercialisation. The proposed reform of intellectual property rights protection … will not bring the expected results in the field of science. It will not increase the level of innovativeness of neither the Polish science, nor the Polish economy.”
