英国大学在专利和创新方面与欧洲同行相比表现如何？

我最近曾报道过（1）我参加了欧洲专利局（EPO）举办的网络研讨会，讨论了他们在欧洲大学专利和创新报告中的一些发现（2）这份综合报告详细分析了来自欧洲专利局所有成员国1200多所欧洲大学的专利申请。因此，报告不仅包括欧盟成员国大学的详细数据，还包括英国、瑞士和挪威等非欧盟成员国大学的详细数据。

I recently reported (1) that I listened to a webinar hosted by the European patent office (EPO), which discussed some of the findings from their report looking into patents and innovation in European universities (2). The comprehensive report includes detailed analysis on European patent applications stemming from more than 1200 European universities, across all EPO member states. As such, this includes details from not just EU member state universities, but also from universities in non-EU member states including the UK, Switzerland and Norway.  

报告强调其数据涉及直接专利申请（以大学为申请人的专利申请）和间接专利申请（以第三方为申请人，但包括一名或多名大学学者作为发明人的专利申请）。通过包含直接和间接专利申请，该报告旨在更清晰反映欧洲大学在创新和专利领域发挥的作用。间接专利申请包括大型实体和初创企业提出的申请。该报告通常使用“初创企业”一词，需要注意的是，这里的“初创企业”既包括从大学中剥离出来的公司，也包括与大学无关但希望利用大学的知识产权（IP）的新兴公司。

The report was eager to stress that the data looked at direct patent filings (patent applications that identify a university as an applicant) and indirect patent filings (patent applications that identify a third party as an applicant, but include one or more university academics as inventors). By including both direct and indirect patent filings, it is intended to provide a clearer picture of the role universities play in the innovation and patenting landscape across Europe. Indirect patent filings include applications filed by large entities, as well as start-ups. The report generally uses the term start-up, which it should be noted includes both spin-outs from a University and young companies unrelated to a university looking to utilise university intellectual property (IP).  

报告发现，2019年欧洲专利局（EPO）收到的欧洲专利申请中，有超过10%直接或间接源自欧洲大学，而2000年这一比例约为6%。虽然从历史上看，大学可能更注重教育和学术研究，但知识转移（将信息、技能或专业知识从一个人或一个团体传递给另一个人的过程）越发被视为对于大学很重要，申请数量的增加恰当地反映了这一点。

The report found that more than 10% of all patent applications filed at the EPO from within Europe in 2019, originated, directly or indirectly, from European based universities, an increase from about 6% in 2000. Whilst historically universities were perhaps focussed more on education and academic research, knowledge transfer (the process of sharing information, skills, or expertise from one person or group to another) is increasingly seen as being of importance to universities and the increase in filings is an appropriate reflection that this is happening.  

此外，直接申请与间接申请的相对比例也有所增加，这说明大学和/或其技术转让办公室（TTO）在寻求和保护大学原创知识产权方面发挥着更积极的作用。报告显示，直接申请更可能基于那些仍需寻找商业化途径的研究，而间接申请则更多地响应行业需求。假设这一情况属实，则大学需要为其直接申请找到创收途径，例如许可给现有实体进行使用或者成立分拆的公司并将知识产权许可给拆分出来的公司进行使用。分拆的公司通常涉及大学员工和初始大学股权，而且几乎都位于原属大学附近。因此，分拆公司的成立需要大学提供大量额外资源和支持，而不是仅仅基于知识产权启动。

Moreover, the relative proportion of direct versus indirect filings has also increased, showing that universities and/or their technology transfer offices (TTOs) are taking a more active role in seeking out and protecting university originating IP.  The report suggests that direct applications are more likely to be based on research that still needs to find a route to commercialisation, but that indirect applications are filed more in response to industry needs. Assuming this to be the case, universities need to find a revenue generating route for their direct applications, be that through, for example, licensing to existing entities or through spin-out company formation and licensing IP to the spin-out.  Spin-outs usually involve university staff and an initial university equity stake and they almost always are located near originating university. As such, spin-out formation requires significant additional resources and support from a university and not just the generation of IP.  

在欧洲专利局（2000-2020年）的专利申请方面，德国大学提交的专利申请最多（24.1%），其次是法国（18.0%）和英国（12.3%）。此外，就每名全职研究人员提交的专利申请数量的指标而言，英国远远落后于德国和法国，尽管报告中并未明确说明“研究人员”一词是如何定义的。然而，就专利申请总量而言，德国大学仅占国内申请人提交的所有申请的5.8%，而法国和英国大学分别占10.9%和13.9%。这或许表明了各国在工业构成上的差异以及大学在整体创新方面在每个国家所发挥的相对重要程度的不同。

In terms of patent filings at the EPO (between 2000 – 2020) German Universities filed the most patent applications (24.1%), followed by France (18.0%) and the UK (12.3%). Moreover, the number of university derived patent applications filed per researcher in full-time employment, shows the UK trails someway behind both Germany and France, although it is not clear from the report how the term “researcher” has been determined. However, in terms of total patent applications, only 5.8% of all applications filed by applicants from within the country were filed by German Universities, as compared to 10.9% and 13.9% for French and UK Universities respectively. This perhaps points to a difference in industrial make-up between the countries and the relative importance universities play in each country with respect to overall innovation.  

在同一时间段内，德国和法国分别有12所和15所大学至少提交了250项直接专利申请，但英国只有4所大学（牛津大学、剑桥大学、帝国理工学院和伦敦大学学院）在这一行列中。此外，在该期间，这4所英国大学向欧洲专利局提交了6000多项（直接和间接）专利申请，占英国大学所有欧洲专利申请总数的45%以上。这些大学经常获得最多的研究资金，并被公认为拥有最大的技术转移办公室，同时在比例上，它们向欧洲专利局申请的专利数量也比其他英国大学多得多。尝试更好地理解英国国内以及法国和德国大学之间的这种明显差异，将会很有趣。

In the same timeframe, 12 and 15 universities in Germany and France respectively, filed at least 250 direct patent applications, but only 4 fell into this category in the UK (Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College and University College London). Moreover, during this period, the 4 identified UK universities filed over 6000 (direct and indirect) patent applications at the EPO, accounting for over 45% of all UK university derived EP patent applications. Whilst these universities regularly receive the most research funding and are recognised has having the largest TTOs, proportionally they appear to still be filing many more patent applications at the EPO, than other UK Universities. It would be interesting to try to better understand this apparent disparity within the UK and between the French and German Universities. 

英国和爱尔兰的情况比较特殊，因为它们是欧洲仅有的两个高等教育经费主要来自学生学费的国家（部分由国家补贴）。尽管英格兰也提供了高等教育创新基金（HEIF），北爱尔兰、威尔士和苏格兰地方政府也提供了一些类似的技术转让资金（尽管金额较少），但在其他地方，典型的欧洲高等教育机构仍然有三分之二的收入来自基本的国家拨款（3）。由于来自英国的学生的资助单位减少（4）和国际学生人数的减少，许多英国大学在财务可持续性方面面临挑战，因此，由于资源紧张，许多英国大学可能很难增加申请的专利数量。我们与许多英国大学合作的经验清楚表明，他们的专利预算越来越紧张，技术转移办公室必须对知识产权的商业化潜力和退出策略进行更全面的初步审查，然后才能决定是否申请专利。当然，如此严格的初步审查可能会导致专利申请数量减少，但质量更高。然而，如果仅仅因为缺乏资金而放弃潜在的优质专利申请，那将令人担忧。考虑到这一点，我们很有兴趣了解未来几年英国大学专利申请数量的发展情况，以及“四大”与其他英国大学之间是否会拉开更大的差距。

The UK and Ireland are unusual, as being the only European countries where higher education is mostly funded through student fees (partially subsidized by the state). Although some technology transfer funding is also provided by a Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) in England and similar (although less generous) versions of this in the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Elsewhere, a typical European Higher Education institution still receives about two-thirds of its revenue from a basic state contribution (3).  Given that many UK universities are experiencing challenges with financial sustainability due to a decreased unit of funding for students from the UK (4) and a collapse in international student numbers, it may be difficult for many UK universities to increase the numbers of patents they are filing, due to tightening resources. Certainly, our experience from working with many UK universities is that their patent budgets are becoming increasingly strained and their TTOs are having to conduct more comprehensive initial reviews of the potential for commercialisation and exit strategies for their IP, before deciding whether or not to file patent applications. Of course, such rigorous initial review may result in fewer, but better quality patent applications being filed. However, it would be worrying if potentially good patent applications are not being filed, simply due to a lack of financial resources. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how the UK university patent filing figures develop over the coming years and whether or not an even larger gulf develops between the “big 4” and other UK universities.  

报告还研究了利用大学衍生出来的知识产权提交间接专利申请的初创企业（包括分拆企业），并发现12%的学术专利由欧洲初创企业提交，但其中四分之三的公司仅从25所欧洲大学获得知识产权。在英国，值得注意的是，拥有最多专利申请的4所大学也与最多初创企业有关，这些初创企业都拥有源自大学的知识产权（分别为80-93项）。然而，根据我们的经验，许多其他英国大学正在寻求增加衍生公司的数量，同时确保衍生公司的质量。英国大学衍生公司投资增长了五倍，从2014年的10亿多英镑增长到2021年的50多亿英镑（5），这证明了英国衍生公司的高质量。

The report also looked at start-ups (including spin-outs) that filed indirect patent applications utilising university derived IP and found that 12% of all academic patents were filed by European start-ups, but three-quarters of these companies sourced the IP from only 25 European Universities.  In the UK, it is notable, but perhaps not entirely surprising that the four universities with the most patent filings, are also associated with the most start-ups, with university derived IP (between 80 – 93 each). However, our experience is that many other UK universities are looking to increase spin-out formation, whilst at the same time seeking to ensure a high quality of their spin-outs. The high quality of UK spin outs is supported by the fact that UK university spin-out investment increased five-fold from just over £1 billion in 2014 to over £5 billion in 2021 (5).  

每所大学在成立分拆公司方面的能力和/或意愿各不相同，但整个欧洲的趋势是，申请专利最多的大学往往也是创建分拆公司最多的大学。这可能与这些大学的TTO的相对经验、以及他们如何管理大学内部的创新有关，但也可能与相对资源有关。虽然大学及其技术转移办公室有时因要求从衍生公司获得大量股权和许可费而受到批评，但欧洲大学似乎确实认为衍生公司是转移知识和将其知识产权商业化的好途径，而且欧洲仍然是衍生公司创立的好地方。

The ability and/or desirability to form spin-outs varies between each university, but there is a general trend throughout Europe that the universities that file the most patents, tend also to be the universities creating the most spin-outs. This may point to the relative experience of these universities’ TTOs and how they manage innovation derived from within their universities, but it may also be due to relative resources. Whilst Universities and their TTOs are sometimes criticised for the amount of equity stake and royalties they request from their spin-outs, it would nevertheless appear that European universities do see spin-out creation as being a good route to transfer knowledge and to commercialise their IP and that Europe is still a good place for spin-out creation.

然而，该报告也指出，在2015年至2019年期间，欧洲大学衍生知识产权申请中近10%的初创企业位于美国，这表明欧洲衍生创新的重要性，但也可能表明美国市场的吸引力以及那里的中小企业能成功地将创新商业化。这种趋势是否正在增长还有待观察。

However, the report also points out that almost 10% of start-ups with European university derived IP filings, between 2015 – 2019, are based in the US, pointing to the importance of European derived innovations, but perhaps also the attractiveness of the US market and SMEs there being able to successfully commercialise innovations. Whether this is a growing trend remains to be seen. 

这份报告内容全面，引人入胜。不过，未来5-10年中这些趋势将如何发展演变，我们拭目以待。特别是，英国脱欧后，英国大学的专利申请数据将如何演变，与欧洲其他地区相比又如何？英国上届政府提出了一个愿景，即到2035年（6）使英国成为全球创新中心，英国新政府似乎也在采纳这一愿景，认为知识产权创造对于巩固英国作为全球科技领导者（7）的地位至关重要。鉴于英国大学在创造和保护新知识产权方面发挥的重要作用，英国大学的专利申请量与欧洲大学同行的比较结果将随着时间推移而揭晓。

The report is certainly comprehensive and compelling reading. However, it will be interesting to see how any trends grow and evolve over the next 5 – 10 years. In particular, following Brexit, how will the UK university filing figures evolve, as compared to elsewhere in Europe. The previous UK Government set out a vision to make the UK a global hub for innovation by 2035 (6) and the new UK Government appears to be adopting this and considers IP generation as vital to cement the UK’s place as a global leader in science and technology (7). Given the importance UK universities play in generating new IP and its protection, time will tell how UK universities patent filings compare to their European university compatriots.

1. https://reacts.marks-clerk.com/post/102jmdh/patents-and-innovation-in-european-universities
2. https://link.epo.org/web/publications/studies/en-the-role-of-european-universities-in-patenting-and-innovation.pdf 
3. https://eter-project.com/uploads/analytical      reports/ETER_AnalyticalReport_02_final.pdf 
4. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/financial-sustainability-uk-universities 
5. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6549fcb23ff5770013a88131/independent_review_of_university_spin-out_companies.pdf
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-innovation-strategy-leading-the-future-by-creating-it/uk-innovation-strategy-leading-the-future-by-creating-it-accessible-webpage 
7. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ip-for-a-creative-and-innovative-uk-strategy-2024-to-2027/ip-for-a-creative-and-innovative-uk-strategy-2024-to-2027 

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pchapman@marks-clerk.com