INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY RELATIONSHIP IN BRAZIL UNDER THE INNOVATION ACT

Abstract

This paper presents the potential effects of the “Innovation Act” (Lei de Inovação), passed in December 2004, on the Brazilian System of Innovation, from the viewpoint of companies as to their cooperation with universities for the transfer of research results. The objective is to analyze the conditions of the academic environment and how they can foster the enactment of the law. One of the main barriers to technology transfer is the wide range of different policies found in public universities regarding the protection and licensing of the knowledge they produce. The lack of clear guidelines in universities, as well as in scientific and technological policies, hinders the commercial exploration of research results and their subsequent transformation into innovative products and services. The methodology chosen consisted of a review of the literature on National Innovation Systems in several countries, on public policies adopted for the management of intellectual property in the transfer of research results, and on their relationship with technological and organizational practices in these countries. Intellectual property protection and management programs in Brazilian and foreign universities were also studied. A field research was conducted to gather information on companies associated to ANPEI (Associação Nacional de Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Engenharia das Empresas Inovadoras — Brazilian Association for the Research, Development and Engineering in Innovative Companies), concerning technological partnerships with universities, intellectual property management and expectations created by the Innovation Act for the improvement of technological transfer mechanisms. Results indicate possible ways of improving the law and also academic policies, based on the experience of several countries and also on the opinion of R&D managers working in companies which have product and service innovation as a competitive advantage.