Which university/college files most research patents?

Apparently, it's NUI Galway. Ot at least, it is for patent applications. They told me they filed 30 patent applications last year, beating UCD's 28, TCD's 24, DCU's 24 and DIT's 6. No figures yet for UCC or UL.
Interesting that the SFI granted €350 million worth of research funds to universities last year.

Comments

[Justin Mason]

Wonder if they're making any money from patents? According to a recent NYTimes article, the majority of US universities haven't in the 28 years since the Bayh-Dole Act was passed:

'“Bayh-Dole tore down the taboos that existed against universities engaging in overtly commercial activity. Universities really thought that they were going to make it rich,” said Jennifer Washburn, author of “University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education” (Basic Books, 2005). “Each school was convinced that if they came up with that one blockbuster invention, they could solve all their financial problems.”

Ms. Washburn says that was “extremely wrong-headed.” Initially reacting to the law by slapping patents on every possible innovation, universities quickly discovered that patents were an expensive proposition. The fees and legal costs involved in obtaining a single patent can run upward of $15,000, and that doesn’t count the salaries of administrative staff members. Instead of bringing home the bacon, university tech transfer offices were throwing money into the void with little hope of returns.

To date, Ms. Washburn says, data gathered by the Association of University Technology Managers, a trade group, show that fewer than half of the 300 research universities actively seeking patents have managed to break even from technology transfer efforts.Instead, two-thirds of the revenue tracked by the association has gone to only 13 institutions.'

url: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/technology/07unbox.html

[Yourtech]

That's an excellent point.

I was talking to a guy from Trinity yesterday and he made the same point. There's definitely a question over the commercialisation of IP at third level.