The review presents an in-depth analysis of Ukraine's intellectual property system regarding its support to technology transfer and commercialization of publicly funded research and development. The analysis attempts to identify regulatory and framework impediments for the commercialization of publicly funded research and recommends reforms and policies that could improve the framework conditions for intellectual property (IP) and technology transfer (TT). The analysis is based on available legal, regulatory, and policy documents and information from secondary resources as well as qualitative interviews with stakeholders. The review finds that academic and publicly funded research in Ukraine rarely reaches the market due to its inherently basic research orientation; its lack of relevance to local industry needs; low capacity and demand for research by the private sector; legal, institutional, and administrative hurdles; weak culture of research commercialization; and limited incentives for commercialization of research results. Moreover, technology transfer offices and intermediaries are yet to be affective in their research commercialization efforts. Against this backdrop, the report provides a list of policy recommendations along the institutional and normative frameworks. On the institutional level, the recommendations focus on disseminating coherent IP ownership policies across public research organizations (PROs) and funding agencies; developing and implementing IP policies at the institutional level; developing competent intermediary and bridging organizations; improving monitoring of publicly funded IP activities; in addition to other areas. On the normative framework level, the recommended reforms address publicly funded IP ownership legal rules and touch upon contingent legal acts beyond IP and TT regulations. Importantly, the report calls for reforms that provide better incentives for researchers at PROs to disclose inventions, collaborate with local and international private firms, and commercialize research.
Stanković, Mirjana; Aridi, Anwar. 2017. Ukraine - Intellectual property and technology transfer regulatory review (English). Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group.