Intellectual property market data in Europe: Signs of progress

In an earlier blog, I deplored the lack of data about the European IP market and in particular about the academic licensing business. I wondered whether there was a European organisation like the US Association of University Technology Managers  (AUTM), which publishes regular data on US academic licensing.

I am delighted to report that my “bottle in the ocean” approach has produced its first results. Thanks to Colin Wyatt, from Imperial College, I learnt that there is a UK organisation called the University Companies Association (UNICO), whose goal is to “create bridges between Universities and the Commercial World.” UNICO not only brings together some (though not all) of the UK universities active in commercial technology transfer, but it also publishes a regular survey of licensing in the UK. According to its latest version (2004), the total licensing income increased from £31.3m in 2003 to over £40m in 2004, with the number of licence agreements more than doubling during this period. The survey also reports that in 2003 and 2004, 20 spin-outs from UK universities floated, with a combined value of over £1billion.

As befits a networked outfit, UNICO also provides links (although this requires some effort, as a dedicated link page is missing) to other entities operating in this area, for instance, the Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP), based in Amsterdam. ASTP does not provide any data (or maybe I was unable to find any), but it does organise seminars and conferences.

So, it appears that we have elements of a European network. Let's make it happen.