IP4OS Deliverable 2.2 - Case examples for the valorisation platform

This publication describes how Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Open Science (OS) can be strategically aligned rather than treated as opposing approaches. Its main aim is to show that, when designed carefully, IPR can support openness, accelerate innovation, strengthen knowledge valorisation, and increase societal benefit.

The publication is intended as a practical resource for policymakers, research institutions, and industry partners. It presents ten real-world examples of good practice in which IPR is used not to restrict access, but to enable collaboration, create legal certainty, and promote fair and equitable use of research results.

These examples are organised into three broad strategic approaches. The first, open-licensing ecosystems, show how organisations such as CERN and Arduino use licensing models and trademarks to share technologies widely while maintaining quality assurance and sustainable business structures. The second, pre-competitive research platforms, includes initiatives such as the Structural Genomics Consortium and Project Data Sphere, which reduce or waive early-stage IP claims in order to speed up foundational research and lower the risks associated with later commercial development. The third, strategic IPR for global health access, explores how organisations such as DNDi and ASAP use patents or regulatory exclusivity defensively and contractually to secure affordability and worldwide access to medicines.

The publication argues that the perceived tension between IPR and OS can be resolved through deliberate institutional and legal design. It repositions IPR as a flexible instrument that can be used to scale openness, support collaboration, and increase the public value of research.