Fundamentals of commercialisation
Commercialisation is the process of transforming knowledge into money by trading intellectual property in the market place.
Why commercialise?
There are a number of reasons to commercialise your research, including:
- Gaining funding for further research
- Kudos/Prestige
- Access to top resources
- Personal financial gain
- Economic growth
- Providing a benefit to the community
Current practice at Curtin is to return 50% of the Net Proceeds from the base intellectual property to Inventors. Returns due to Curtin's cash investment are not included.
Of the University's share, 70% of the base intellectual property share is allocated to the Division/School/etc. 30% of this is usually allocated to the Division, but agreement from all parties is needed on this split.
How do you commercialise?
Essentially, you must communicate to the financial market the value of your intellectual property, and the mechanism by which that value can be realised.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is the term used to describe creations of one's mind or intellect and in business may be referred to as 'proprietary knowledge'. Typical examples include inventions, computer programs, literary/artistic works and trade marks. IP Australia's website contains comprehensive definitions on these types of IP and other useful information.
Intellectual property has value and can be traded if appropriate steps are taken to protect it at the concept stage. Once the intellectual property is adequately protected, it can be made profitable by finding the specific customers that will buy it, and marketing and selling it in the most advantageous way. Some markets are dominated by one or two major players, making it very hard for a new company with an untried product to attract customers. Certain products, such as drugs, require significant infrastructure to mass produce. In instances like these it is often best to license the intellectual property to another company rather than manufacture the device in-house, in order to take advantage of existing infrastructure and distribution channels. For other products, such as computer software, it may be more cost effective to form a start-up company and attract enough investment capital to manufacture the product privately. Every piece of intellectual property creates its own set of challenges and opportunities. If you would like to know more about how Curtin can help you commercialise your research, please see The commercialisation process.
