CORBEL Concept paper on intellectual property issues in pre-competitive research

The aim of this report is to elaborate various aspects of intellectual property (IP) in the context of Open Science (OS), pre-competitive projects and Open Innovation (OI). These rapidly developing fields show some specific common features as well as specific distinctions that are described and the impact of these differences on IP and innovation is discussed. The report highlights major implications of OS on IP and OI. OS widens the community that may generate IP and participate in OI. Furthermore, enlarging the innovation community and reducing entry barriers for Start-up companies and SMEs in generating IP accelerate the innovation process and generate a series of new challenges, such as increased pressure for early filing of patent applications, increased risk of unknown parallel inventions, reduced time for further developing IP, and increased barriers for venture capital funding. However, these challenges can, at least in part, be overcome by European research infrastructures for the biological and medical sciences (BMS RIs) by providing access to resources and services that essentially support the whole innovation chain from basic research to testing of new medicines in patients.