The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB) and Kaunas University of Technology National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (KTU NIEC) has signed the collaboration agreement, which laid foundation for the new Patent Library – PATLIB Centre. This will be the first time, when a PATLIB Centre is established at a university.
“Founding of PATLIB Centre is a serious step towards better protection of intellectual property, which is important not only for the scientific community, but for the society in general”, said Mindaugas Bulota, director of NIEC.
The agreement between the Lithuanian Patent Bureau and KTU NIEC aims to create favourable conditions for active and mutually productive collaboration between researchers, business and the State, and for more efficient dissemination of information on industrial property.
The main function of PATLIB Centre will be education and spreading information on industrial property protection, consultation on the issues of intellectual property. PATLIB services will be available to both private and juridical persons.
According to Bulota, PATLIB services will be connected to 3 kinds of industrial property objects: inventions, trademarks and design.
“Around the world and in Lithuania, PATLIB centres are providing such services as an open library space, information search services for industrial property information, courses for the users, consultations on certain issues connected to industrial property protection”, said Arūnas Želvys, director of Lithuanian SPB.
At the moment, there are 4 PATLIB centres in Lithuania. They have all been founded between 1995 and 1998, after Lithuania signed a collaboration agreement with European Patent Organisation (EPO), and in collaboration with Lithuanian Technical Library. KTU is the first university to house a PATLIB Centre. The founders expect that this step will improve technology transfer and will add to the increased revenue from business.
“The fact that our university was chosen for the Centre means both great recognition and responsibility. We see that there is need for information on intellectual property protection, therefore we are planning not only individual consultations, but also various events on the topics, such as seminars for both scientific community and general society”, said Bulota.
Since 2012, KTU has submitted more than 60 national and international patent applications. At the moment, the most active fields are health technologies and new materials.
