Intellectual property
Modernizing processes and practices
19 Feb 2018
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Antoaneta Boeva, Legal Affairs
"A wise man will always allow a fool to rob him of ideas without yelling 'Thief.' If he is wise, he has not been impoverished," says Ben Hecht in A Child of the Century.
And there were many wise participants at the ninth Intellectual Property Contact Persons meeting (IPCP-09) earlier this month, exchanging views, best practices, and lessons from managing intellectual property within the ITER framework.
The ninth Intellectual Property Contact Persons meeting took place in early February. Representatives from every ITER Member, as well as ITER staff working on intellectual property issues, were in attendance.
IPCP-09 took place on 6-7 February 2018 at ITER Headquarters, gathering representatives from the ITER Members and Domestic Agencies, as well as ITER staff working on legal, governance and information management issues in the area of intellectual property.
With the ITER Project in full swing, pushing the boundaries of multiple disciplines with dual challenges of scale and precision, there is no shortage of innovation and ingenuity. What is less clear—particularly while meeting the demands of an unrelenting schedule—is how to ensure intellectual property is recorded, evaluated and, as appropriate, disseminated.
Discussions this year focused on publications and copyright issues, intellectual property training for serving and newcomer staff, and improvement of the processes which are in place to "support the widest appropriate dissemination of ITER information and intellectual property [Article 10.1 of the ITER Agreement]."
Significant advances in the reporting of background and generated intellectual property were hailed as a success. Opportunities were identified for testing the various mechanisms available for ensuring the screening, availability and accessibility of relevant data.
Participants welcomed the opportunity to exchange ideas on further modernizing intellectual property processes and practices within the wider ITER family.