A study on the issues of the Article 73 of the Patent Law in the university-industry collaboration: management of joint patents owned by university and industry

Abstract

The number of joint researches between university and industry has increased rapidly since the middle of 1990s. The inventions created in the joint researches have been registered as joint patents. This paper confirms the general notion of the Article 73 of the Patent Law which prescribes the concept of joint patent, and reviews the issues of the patents jointly owned by university and industry. Then, how other countries resolve these issues is examined. Lastly, this paper proposes a guideline for management of the patents in universities and TLOs where joint ownership of patents should be avoided.