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NEW Ajou University to support technology commercialization after being selected as a Patent Gap Fund operator

  • 2020-04-03
  • 3655

2020-02-20

 

 

Ajou University has been selected as a Patent Gap Fund operator by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). The Patent Gap Fund aims to support technology commercialization by closing the gap between the patents owned by universities and public research institutes and the technologies preferred by businesses.

On February 19th, KIPO signed agreements on supporting the Patent Gap Fund at the Korea Intellectual Property Service Center with four institutional operators, including Ajou University, Kookmin University, Seoul National University, and the Korea Institute of Materials Science.

Ajou University is participating in the project through N4U Tech Holding Inc., which was founded together with Kookmin University. Over the next three years, each institutional operator is set to receive KRW 200-400million of technology commercialization funds per year.

The Patent Gap Fund will support technology commercialization via patent verification, prototype product manufacturing, and technology marketing, etc. KIPO plans to operate the Fund in a sustainable manner – i.e., through reinvesting licensing fees into other promising technologies after collecting them from transferring technologies to businesses.

Ajou University is separately pursuing its own program called "Ajou Gap Fund" as part of its industry-academia cooperation under the 2019 University Innovation Support Project. It is expected to create synergy with the KIPO Gap Fund.

A total of 12 universities and research institutes applied for the KIPO Gap Fund Project this year.

KIPO stated, "We expect that technology holding companies like N4U will create synergy by combining excellent patented technologies from universities," adding, "We will actively support the institutions that seek to market their collection of promising patents."

N4U Tech Holding Inc. was established through a consortium of universities to create a virtuous circle in which the universities invest revenue from business activities back into education and research. It also seeks to maximize the achievements made from R&D and intellectual-property-based technology commercialization by partner universities through a subsidiary.