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community, the pressure of publishing is very high. The benefit of commercialisation (measured in patents) compared to academic success (measured in publications) is mostly perceived to be risky84. Vice versa, the big companies do not tend to publicise their results by research communications. When considering the role of SMEs in the patent field, is becomes obvious that many SMEs have other strategies in IP protection but patent filing. Hence, it would be quite interesting to study the commercialisation modes of especially SMEs, as they contribute in a high number to the economic activity of the field. 3.3.2 Global perspectives The profiling showed the importance of World patents (WO patents administered by WIPO85). European inventors file internationally rather than using the national level: 67% of all patents in marine biotechnology in Europe were filed as WO patents. Since the early 1980s international patenting has gained importance leading to a boost of world patents after 1985. A few patents were filed with specific protection in US (134) and Canada (2). These patents have at least one inventor or applicant from a European country, but the “drivers” of those patents mostly were from non-EUstates. A recent study86 compared the European patent situation in the fields of aquatic (including aquaculture and other industries) and high value products (including health, cosmetic and food) to the global scene: The study indicated a high output of European academia but an overall dominance of Asia in the field of patent filing (main countries: Japan and China), especially in the field of high value products. This is in agreement with the results of the overall Blue Growth study, which stated that scientific publications on the discovery and the usage of new marine molecules have constantly risen. In a global view, Europe generates almost a third of the scientific publications (in particular the United Kingdom, France and Germany) whereas the USA publish approximately a quarter of the scientific papers related to this field. When comparing this scientific activity to the trend in patents publications, the difference is striking: Europe only represents 13% of patents filed in relation to new marine molecules, at the same level than the USA. Japan (28%) and China (13%) seem far more active in patent publications than in scientific publications87. Top authors in this field are seldom listed as top patent assignees, regardless of whether this relates to institutions or individual researchers88. As discussed, European Academics still seem to prefer publication rather than patent filing or find others way for valorisation. It would be interesting to assess the economic potential of the individual patents, however this was not possible in the context of this study as: a) economic value is normally generated from a set of patents rather than from individual one’s; b) investor decisions often depend on a variety of factors that are kept confidential to third parties; c) economic value from patents may occur only over longer periods of time 84 ibid 85 86 Thomson Reuter 2011 87 A WO patent is granted by the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO. The prefix WO, which is short for WIPO, indicates that the patent will be administered by this body. Member States that have signed treaties and agreements allowing intellectual property rights to be protected by WIPO cover around 90 percent of the world's countries. The WIPO website reports 184 member states operating under WIPO patent regulations. The situation is slightly different when considering only patents on genetic resources as described by Arnaud-Haond et al. (2011): European researchers are as active in claiming patents as researchers from the US and Japan. In total, ten countries (USA, Japan and 8 European countries) own 90% of the patents deposited with marine genes.. 88 Data: Aquatic products top 10 priority countries: Japan, USA, patent cooperation treaty, China, Germany, Korea, European patent office, Canada, UK, Australia, with top 5 inventors: Bayer, Mitsubishi, Chugoku Toryo, Chinese Academy of Science, Nippon; EU research top 5: Fraunhofer, Consejo, CNRS, Univ. Madrid, Univ. Hull; World research top 5: all Chinese; in papers: all European; High value products top 10 priority countries: Japan, patent cooperation treaty, China, USA, Russia, Korea, European patent office, Germany, France, UK, with top 5 inventors: Univ. Kangnung Wonju, L’Oreal, Noevir KK, Nestle SA, Dokurit; EU research top 5: CNRS, Univ. Bashkir med, Consejo, Imperial College, Royal Holloway; World research top 5: all Chinese; in papers: USA, France, UK, Germany, Canada. 50 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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