Accessing other people's technology

Nottenburg, Carol; Pardey, Philip G.; Wright, Brian D. 2003. Accessing other people's technology. Research at a Glance Brief. 4. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/156909

Public and private nonprofit institutions worldwide engaged in agricultural research and biotechnology are increasingly active participants in intellectual property transactions, interacting with the for-profit sector and even spawning private entities of their own. Notably absent from the group of nonprofit insti-tutes seeking patent protection are the 16 centers of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR). Located primarily in developing countries, only a few centers have obtained patent protection for their inventions. Nonprofit research institutions are not in the business of selling products to con-sumers. If they are to realize a return on their investment, they must sell rights to their technologies to commercial entities or other research institutions rather than make them freely available. A nonprofit entity may, for example, exclusively license technology to a commercial partner, license the technology itself nonexclusively, or use the technology as the foundation for a spin-off company.