The time is not right to breathe back life into the European software patent, says Francisco Mingorance from the Business Software Alliance. Thomas Lau investigates.

Overcoming the familiar barriers to public learning and understanding of science is focus of new research professorship established by the Hasselblad Foundation jointly at Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University in Göteborg, Sweden.

Multinationals have a new weapon in the innovation race: technology scouts. These people scan the globe looking for the next big thing.

Czechoslovakia’s development authorities are to win a reputation for the country as a magnet for emerging biotech.

Everyone wants to encourage innovation. But, says Alain de Serres from the OECD, a survey of the world’s leading industrial countries shows they are going about it in different ways and with very different results.

It is one thing to recognise the need to manage intellectual property like any other strategic resource. But it is quite another to install the systems and devise the processes for doing it.

Researchers in Denmark have invented a bioplastic material made from dairy products that could replace traditional polymer-based packaging. The technology is currently available for licensing.

If you think it’s hard to do a biotech start up, try doing it in Poland. You’ll face international condescension, local incredulity and the mysteries of Polish law, says Charles Goldfinger.

French researchers have discovered that an anti-rejection drug could treat Huntington's disease. Intellectual Property based on the research is available for licence.