Intellectual property
- Overview
- Volume of discoveries generated by MRC research
- Examples of discoveries arising from MRC funded research
Overview
Research may yield discoveries that could be commercially exploited, or should be formally registered in other ways to ensure that the originators are duly recognised. Researchers may register a design or trade mark, assert copyright (in the case of authorship), or simply protect ‘know how’ using confidentiality agreements.
Alternatively researchers might seek a patent, an intellectual property right, granted by a country’s government as a territorial right for a limited period. Patents generally cover products or processes that contain ‘new’ functional or technical aspects. They are concerned with how things work, how they are made, or what they are made of. In MRC e-Val we asked for information about published patents, as at this stage the patent information has been put into the public domain and there is therefore no risk of jeopardising patent protection by prior disclosure.
MRC e-Val gathered information on all of these ways of recognising discoveries. The MRC was interested in all formal evidence that knowledge was being transferred to/shared with others.
In particular the MRC is interested in whether published, patented discoveries have passed the first market test of being licensed to someone else. The terms of these licenses are usually confidential, and so MRC e-Val simply focusses on capturing whether researchers could report that their intellectual property had been licensed or not, and whether there was anything to report on subsequent impacts.
Further information
- Discoveries generated by MRC research
- Examples of discoveries reported
Volume of discoveries generated by MRC research
MRC e-Val gathered details of 365 discoveries. These included 27 reports of copyrighted works, 106 reports of discoveries for which formal protection was not possible or required, and 232 reports relating to published patented discoveries.
Reported patents were searched for in an international patent database (Patent details were searched for using the GB esp@cenet user interface developed by the European Patent Office), 186 of these records were matched. The publication number of each matched patent was entered into the MRC e-Val database.
It should be noted that the number of patents pursued to publication cannot be taken as an indication of the number of patentable discoveries arising from MRC funded research. Many factors are taken into account in pursuing a patent, and given the costs of maintaining patent protection the benefits to the host institution have to be carefully weighed up. We obtained several reports of patents being allowed to lapse as decisions were taken not to continue with the protection.
MRC is interested in intellectual property that passes the first market test of being licensed to others. In future we wish to be able to estimate the time taken for patents to be successfully licensed. As new data is gathered each year via MRC e-Val we will be able to track changes in the portfolio of patents over time. It is of course possible that discoveries may be licensed before completing the patenting process, as demonstrated by some of the patents with a publication date in 2010.
We found that the overall proportion of patented discoveries licensed was 37% (85 licensed discoveries out of a total of 232 reported).
This data also outlined in further detail the basis for several spin out companies, for example MRC LMB reported patents that had been assigned to Heptares Therapeutics centred on the conformational thermostabilisation of membrane proteins and patents that assisted in the establishment of the US company AnaptysBio Inc.
Examples of discoveries arising from MRC funded research
Copyrighted works
MRC Researcher |
Discovery |
More information |
David Sattelle (MRC Functional Genomics Unit) |
Software to apply a statistical approach to measure the rate at which nematode worms swim, without having to use video recording methods |
|
Karina Lovell (University of Manchester) |
A self-help book for people suffering from depression, an output from the “Trial Platform of Guided Self-Help for Mild to Moderate Depression in Primary Care” |
Published Patents
Fred Currell (Queen’s University Belfast) |
A method for reducing the time taken to carry out Monte Carlo calculations by between 100 and 1000 times. This is expected to have an impact on radiation therapy planning and radiation research |
|
Alasdair MacLullich (University of Edinburgh) |
A new computerised instrument for detection of attentional deficits in delirium. The inventors have obtained £150k MRC DPFS funding to commercialise the device. |
Written up as part of a set of case studies highlighting experimental medicine |
Licensed Patents
David Carling (MRC Clinical Sciences Centre) |
Collaboration with GSK over small molecule inhibitors of AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK), having determined the structure of the key regulatory subunit with Steve Gamblin at NIMR. AMPK is an enzyme that plays an important role in cellular energy homeostasis |
|
Nancy Rothwell (University of Manchester) |
Collaboration with Amgen Inc. to test the clinical utility of IL-1RA for stroke in man. The first clinical phase II study was completed in 2004. Patent granted initially in US in 2000; other international juristictions in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2008. |
|
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology) |
Group of patents relating to the 30S subunit of the bacterial ribosome as potential targets for the discovery of new classes of antibacterial drugs. Licensed to Rib-X Pharmacueticals, a US biotech company. |
Collaboration between Rib-X and MRC Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan wins 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry |
Kay Davies (MRC Functional Genomics Unit) |
Two patents describing the promoter sequence of utrophin and its use in screening for upregulators of the gene. This patent was licensed to Summit plc |