History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Aaro Tupasela
University of Helsinki
Department of Sociology
P.O.BOX 18
Unioninkatu 35
00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Tel:+358-9-191-23970
Fax:+358-9-191-23967
E-mail: tupasela@valt.helsinki.fi
Intellectual Property Rights and Patenting:
Can Centralized Technology Transfer Save Public Research?
In trying to develop a coherent system of technology transfer in Finland, officials have neglected to take into account national conditions and legislation under which Finland has operated for over 30 years. Current theories of social change and academic research fail to identify historical and structural differences between countries and assume that a unified system of technology transfer is suitable for everybody. Intellectual property rights are a pivotal point around which universities are having to work in the hopes of securing new sources of funding for research and development in Finland. It is hoped that organized technology transfer will bring with it increased amounts of private funding to the Finnish university system. Although recent statistics would seem to indicate growth and development in this field, the extent to which these developments are occurring fall far short of the current political rhetoric on the importance of new growth areas such as the bio-sciences.
The development of a technology transfer company by the University of Helsinki in the early 1990s and its subsequent search for a niche in the Finnish academic environment has brought to light several problems concerning technology transfer and current theories concerning the changing base of academic research. The case of Helsinki University Licensing Ltd. (HUL) provides an interesting point of departure in examining the current problems which seem to confront science studies and the so-called ‘capitalization’ of knowledge. Being connected to Finlands largest university, HUL is instructive in pointing to several weaknesses that would arise if a centralized transfer system were to be adopted, such as in the US. As such, alternative solutions should be developed to support public-private ventures that take into account country specific conditions of scientific development and technology transfer to the private sector.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006