Sagentia has a wealth of experience in helping organisations, universities and academia. Dr Jeremy Klein of Sagentia's Public Sector practice provides an opinion on the commercialisation of IP in the UK.
'UK universities are originators of some of the best novel intellectual property in the world. IP Group plc's business is to generate commercial value from IP created by its university partners', proclaims IP Group on its website. Other companies are trying to do much the same, amongst them Angle, Sigma Technologies and Biofusion. In these arrangements a university typically gives away 10 to 15 per cent of equity in spinout companies in exchange for help in commercialising IP and access to finance. Before one university took the plunge and signed-up for a 25 year deal it asked us to research the question "Do these arrangements work?".