An assessment of the determinants of licensing of university patents: a survey of Spanish universities

PurposeThis work tries to shed light on what factors can influence, positively or negatively, the decision to license a patent from a university, in order to offer some recommendations that can contribute to increasing the number of patents licensed from universities.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of researchers at Spanish universities who have already registered patents, this work shows that the individual factors of the researcher outweigh the institutional factors in determining the decision to patent an invention. Likewise, the probability of patenting an invention is higher when the researcher's level of participation in the process is greater.FindingsThe results of our study allow us to affirm that, in the Spanish university setting, individual factors play a more important role in one's decision to license a patent than institutional factors. In this sense, the collaboration of companies or experts from outside of academia in the research from which the patent was granted is the most relevant factor.Originality/valueThis work, the first study of this type to be carried out in Europe, concludes with a recommendation for reinforcing the structure and functionality of technology transfer offices as a basic policy for the promotion and facilitation of commercial exploitation of innovation in the universities.