Aggregation and pooling of patent portfolios, the effect on industry and entrepreneurial activity in the Nordic region.

Biotechnology research is important for social and economic welfare. It covers utilization broadly, and many useful technology platforms are being developed. One of them is CRISPR/Cas9. This gene editing technology has frequently been criticized for creating a knowledge monopoly. The access to technologies like CRISPR/Cas9 can be restricted, and access to and utilization of the technology depends on the intellectual property management and contractual terms devised by the owners of the technology. Collaborations in research between universities and industry are essential for academic knowledge to be transferred to the public. Industry benefit from accessing scientific knowledge that they can use to improve the quality of their knowledge and to anticipate future research problems in new technological areas. Examples include setting up new businesses, creating products and services, and engaging in existing market transactions. Universities benefit from a close collaboration with the market and the implementers of new technologies. This thesis examines university intellectual property management in collaborations with industry. Public funded research collaboration agreements have been empirically analyzed, and a research model and an ontology for investigating intellectual property in such agreements have been developed. These investigations are the first, to the best of my knowledge, empirical investigations of intellectual property elements in universityindustry collaboration agreements. The research represents results and tools for use by university managers, innovation managers, and policy makers to shed light on the effect of their intellectual property management strategies in collaborations. The thesis furthermore investigates the patent landscape of CRISPR/Cas9. This exemplifies the intellectual property management and control positions being used by universities involved in the development of a disruptive biotechnology research tool. The CRISPR case exemplifies the challenges universities face when performing commercialization of research results which also are the subject of collaborations to develop new research. The thesis represents an analysis of agreements in collaborations between universities and industries financed by a public funder. I have investigated the evolution of intellectual property management at the university and the use of intellectual property in collaborations with industry. By analysing IP models of university-industry collaborations, I explore how different ways of managing IP have emerged and coevolved to balance the norms of open science within the framework of university entrepreneurship and commercialization and accessing university research. The thesis' contribution is based on models providing a broad focus on the university missions of teaching, research, and economic and social contribution. I analyse the relationship between these missions in relation to IP management. This analysis has enabled me to suggest solutions to how the university could improve strategies of intellectual property development and management in a fast-growing knowledge economy, and its interaction and integration with society. As this thesis will show, there is a lack in prior literature of tools for being able to empirically investigate collaborations agreements in universityindustry collaborations. There is a need for research studying why and how universities should be concerned about how access to disruptive biotechnological tools are being managed in the development of new research and in collaborations with industry. This thesis fills a research gap in universities intellectual property management strategies and models for purposes beyond their classical first, second and third missions. The studies of 463 collaboration agreements, the development of an empirical model for analysing these agreements and suggestions for intellectual property management in collaborations are the results of this thesis. The results also comprise a detailed analysis of how the universities involved in the development of the biotechnology tool CRISPR/Cas9 have managed access to this tool. This thesis provides new knowledge to universities intellectual property management of research results in collaborations with industry.

Det er gjennom prosjektet etablert en ny forståelse av kontraktsreguleringer i offentlige fiknansierte forskningsprosjekter. Der etablert en modell for å unne måle effekten av offentlig finansiering i samarbeidsprosjekter mellom industri og universiteter og tilgang til forskning.

This thesis belongs to the field of economics of intellectual assets, life science technology and innovation policy. The objective of this research is to investigate the role of patent aggregation and pooling of patent documents as an important element of both knowledge economy, intellectual assets and innovation policy in where the economy more than ever needs to foster openness, cooperation and sharing. The impact and role of such aggregators in the knowledge economy and the Nordic industry in particular will be invesitgated. Little is known about patent aggregation and pooling. The strategies, activities, and the evolution over time, as well as how producing companies and other parties can utilize patent to leverage their patent portfolios will thus be the subjects of this thesis. The overall question is if open innovation is in contradiction to the aeration of patents port. Are there some patent business models that are more attractive in an open innovation model where one see that the knowledge base economy is driving at fast speed? Patent aggregators comes in many shapes. When looking at different type of aggregators the research will aim to find out what are their main objectives, historically and in society influence. The findings will look into if aggregated patent portfolios do show that strongly enforced rights do not always benefit the producers and owners of intellectual property rights, especially if there is a prospect of cumulative invention where follow-on inventors build on the first discovery. It is expected that strong exclusive rights to inventions where aggregation of patent documents can both play a negative and a positive role dependent on aggregator and how the patent pools are being played in a business development. When looking at university IP aggregators this research will collect and compare patent aggregation at different universities, models and size/location - their impact and influence on entrepreneurial activity.