Rewards for Inventors

Licensing and technology transfer are more in evidence now in the UK than they were in the mid — 1980s. (The phrase ‘technology transfer’ indicates a recognition that it is more than the mere grant of a legal right that enables new products to be developed and new markets opened up.) Has the government's action in 1985, authorizing universities to exploit the inventions arising from their Research Council funded grants, played a part in this — and, if so, has a new breed of wealthy academic emerged in the process? This paper presents the author's personal view and is based on a questionnaire survey and conversations with staff at the ‘old’ UK universities who are charged with the task of technology transfer.