Data from the Unioncamere-Dintec Observatory on patents indicate that there are at least 1.000 scientific discoveries and
technologies, the result of Italian public research, filed with the European Patent Office (EPO), which could be exploited by companies, giving excellent results in terms of creating new products or improving (and saving) industrial processes. However, their knowledge by the production system, especially by small and medium-sized enterprises, is very limited or, at least, awareness of the potential multi-sectoral applications that each technology, protected by patent, could find is very limited.
Precisely to bring inventions directly "home" to companies, contributing, through an extensive communication campaign, to increasing the culture of innovation among SMEs, Unioncamere (through its company of the Dintec chamber system), Cotec (Foundation for technological innovation) and the National Research Council (Cnr), have signed a special Convention in the framework of a broader Agreement aimed at promoting the implementation of common actions for the scientific and technological development of the country, with particular reference to the SME system .
The initiative undertaken by the three partners will deal with:
• prepare easy-to-consult individual patent files, providing them with information on the state of use, legal and administrative status, territorial coverage, and the advantages of adopting each patent;
• develop the Dintec portal so that it becomes the information system of patents produced by public research;
• launch a broad information campaign on the territory through the Chambers of Commerce involving businesses, associations and technological intermediaries operating locally, starting with universities;
• studying the most suitable methods and formulas for involving private investors and credit consortia in order to find the resources necessary for companies to proceed with the implementation of innovations.
Between 2002 and 2011, 1.081 patent applications were filed by Italian public research bodies and universities at the European Patent Office (EPO). Italian research holds a 2,7% share of Italian European patent applications but records an average annual increase of 9% equal to an average of 108 new discoveries per year.
10,8% of the more than one thousand patents filed at the Epo are due to the activity of the Cnr (117 applications published), followed by the Milan Polytechnic (86), the University of Rome La Sapienza (49), the of Milan (47), then from the University of Bologna (37). Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, measuring instruments and technologies are the technological sectors in which the largest number of inventions are recorded.
