Technology transfer unit for commercialization of intellectual property

Abstract EN

Saudi Arabia adopted “vision 2030” as a roadmap for economic growth and national development.

faculty of computing & information technology (FCIT) to comply with the national vision will establish a new unit for technology transfer and commercialization of intellectual property, specializing in technology transfer.

in general, universities have two main functions.

one is to educate students and pass on knowledge; the other is to engage in research and innovation.

in universities, some research is purely scientific research conducted to promote scientific development and human progress, and these studies/researches may never have practical commercial value.

commercial entities will not pay attention to this research project due to the unpredictability of commercial value.

but at the same time, the research of many universities is of great commercial value, and universities can obtain huge benefits from it.

these benefits can be used to support research funding and enhance reputation in the future.

as a result, the existing potential is not being used effectively enough, and although innovative activity and indicators of technological development tend to gradual growth, but still remain low.

the FCIT unit for technology transfer and commercialization of intellectual property will be a tool of innovative infrastructure, which allows for the efficient distribution of technological information and the search for partners for implementing technological innovative projects.

there is no term“commercialization” in the legislation, it is replaced by the expression “involvement of intellectual property in economic turnover” which fits our national vision.

however, commercialization is an essential element of the innovation process.

the commercialization of technological inventions in King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) faculties will be adopted in “three-step method.

first, to identify which inventions may bring huge business benefits.

second, to strategize and combine intellectual property rights that are protected for commercialized inventions, to maximize their potential commercial value.

the third step is to create a mechanism that is conducive to increasing the commercialization opportunities of the invention, such as the establishment of a startup company model through asset stripping and splitting.

as an international best practice for the commercialization, countries in the development and commercial use of the new technologies.

according to swisscom statistics, over 100 startups in the field of AI, IoT, language engineering and data science work in the country, large research projects with millions of investments.

startups in the field of artificial intelligence originate in Switzerland both within and outside universities a whole, the level of implementation of business projects are very high, and most scientific ideas are brought to practical implementation, and commercialization entities in the universities.

Similar to the international best practice, the paper considered as a proposal to establish FCIT unit for the purpose of technology transfer in KAU that will operate, to help finding partners for the development and implementation of new high-tech technologies, promotes the commercialization of high-tech technologies created at KAU different faculties, and their transfer to enterprises.

the unit for technology transfer includes: 1.

section of marketing and commercialization of intellectual property, 2.

section of patent licensing, 3.

section of information and exhibition projects, 4.innovative activity among different colleges in KAU.