Raising awareness on Intellectual Property

F4E hosted the second Intellectual Property (IP) Associations Network meeting in Barcelona on 23September. The meeting gathered representatives from the areas of IP and Technology Transfer from F4E, the European Commission and the National Fusion Research Associations from different EU member states in order to discuss a number of IP issues relevant to the grant agreements and to share general information on the policy and practice of IP at F4E.

Various aspects on IP were discussed such as the different practices regarding “inventor awards” in Europe and F4E, the rules on access rights to IP established in the ITER Agreement and some best practices for IP protection. The meeting was also an occasion for Associations to see a presentation about the forthcoming IP database, deepen their knowledge vis à vis the F4E terms and conditions on IP and in return, communicate to F4E their needs in order to fine-tune where possible policy and practice.

During the meeting, the new section on the F4E website hosting all IP related information was presented, whose main objective is to provide potential contractors and beneficiaries with a better understanding on how IP management works in practice. F4E has also taken the initiative to establish a partnership with the European IPR-Helpdesk , a project funded by the European Commission under the management of the Executive Agency for the Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) fulfilling the following main objectives: raising awareness in the field of IP, disseminate knowledge and best practices of IP; providing personalised support in tackling general or specific IP questions; empowering beneficiaries of their services to develop their own capacities to deal with IP in their daily business.

 For more information on the IP, consult:  http://www.fusionforenergy.europa.eu/procurementsgrants/IPR.aspx

To view the presentations of the second IP Associations Network meeting click here.