REFORMING IRELAND’S intellectual property regime is to be discussed at today’s first meeting of the group set up to drive the recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe wants to make it easier for entrepreneurs to turn creative ideas into jobs.
The Minister said that he wanted to “maxmise opportunities for commercialisation of Government-backed intellectual property and give entrepreneurs here a competitive edge”. TheMinister has appointed an expert group of technology-transfer practitioners and cross-sector industry representatives to implement the intellectual property-related recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce report.
The report, published in March, focuses on driving innovation by supporting ideas, technology and processes that have commercial potential.
The report made recommendations across a wide range of areas, including the need to transform our intellectual property arrangements.
A separate report by Forfás commissioned by the department and completed in May showed there was scope to develop better commercial opportunities from intellectual property.
Mr O’Keeffe said: “Strong Government investment in research and development means that we now have a vibrant intellectual property sector – but my concern is that we do not have a system that is fast enough in allowing these ideas to be turned into commercialised products and, ultimately, jobs.”
The members of the intellectual property implementation group include Dr Jim Mountjoy (chairman), founder of Euristix; Damien Callaghan, Intel Capital;John Scanlan, director, technology transfer office, NUI Maynooth; Richard Stokes, chief executive of Invent (technology transfer office, DCU); Brendan Cremen, director, technology transfer office, UCC; Prof Terry Smith, vice-president of research, NUI Galway; Dr Jeanne Bolger, vice-president of scientific licensing, Jansen; Barry Kennedy, research programme manager, Intel; Dr Daniel O’Mahony, partner, Kernel Capital Partners; Dr Ena Prosser, partner, Fountain Healthcare Partners; Paul Kavanagh, director of Kinometrics; and Tara MacMahon, intellectual property lawyer.
