Every year the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) encourages people to celebrate Intellectual Property (IP) through a World IP Week.  In 2021, WIPO is focusing on “the critical role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the economy and how they can use intellectual property (IP) rights to build stronger, more competitive and resilient businesses.”

What is IP?

According to WIPO, IP “refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images used in commerce”.  Some forms of IP are protected in law (e.g. patents, copyright, and trademarks) but all IP has the potential to allow the IP’s creators and owners to earn recognition or financial benefit from the IP.

The University of Manchester Innovation Factory drives the commercialisation of the University’s innovations and IP.  Our core mission is to use this IP to create positive social and economic impact. The Innovation Factory works with academic and student inventors to identify research that has the potential to create value. It then translates these into a form where they can be used to benefit society as a whole.

How does our process work?

We use a stage gate process to effectively capture and rapidly evaluate new inventions coming out of The University of Manchester. This ensures we can focus our resources on the strongest innovations and support the academics and students that stand to make the biggest impact with their IP.

This is our Process, showing the stages and actions we take when helping individuals commercialise their innovations and IP:

Not sure if your innovations are something that we support?  We have supported projects from various disciplines, including Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Computing, Engineering & Manufacturing and Physical Sciences.

You can read about some of these projects here: https://www.uominnovationfactory.com/projects/

Your innovations may be valuable socially and/or economically – do not hesitate to get in touch to learn more:

Click here to take our quick two minute survey on IP, with a chance to win a £20 Costa voucher.  

Or, email one of our experts for more info:

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