The Many Benefits of Registering a Patent through the Patent and Licensing Service (PULS)
Foto: birdys / photocase.de
- The university bears the costs and takes care of all administrative matters surrounding registrations and patents.
- PULS conducts professional negotiations for licensing conditions with spin-offs and interested companies as well as providing its expertise in drafting contracts.
- A patent registration is considered a publication.
- It opens up opportunities for cooperation with industry partners and makes it easier to procure third-party funding.
- It literally pays off – in the form of remuneration for the inventors and a special bonus for the scientific working group.
- It ensures competitive advantages for spin-offs.
- PULS monitors the implementation of exploitation contracts.
Before the German Employee Inventions Act (ArbnErfG ) was amended in 2002, inventions made by researchers within the context of their research at a university were considered non-job-related inventions, which meant that they didn’t have to report these to the university (their employer).
A consequence of this was that relatively few inventions were registered as patents at German universities compared to their international counterparts, as inventors were often unable to bear the high costs of the patenting process. Many opportunities for commercial exploitation as well as possibilities to set up new start-ups and safeguard or even create new jobs were irrevocably lost.
Thankfully, things have changed since then: PULS offers researchers at Freie Universität Berlin professional consulting services and support, and the university assumes any patent-related costs that arise – which means that job-related inventions can become as profitable as possible across the board.