On Wednesday, 15 February, a meeting of representatives of the Patent Office (LPO) and Riga Technical University (RTU) took place with the aim of strengthening the existing cooperation between LPO and RTU. The meeting provided the opportunity to recognise the long-term and successful collaboration between the institutions, learn more about the RTU Technology and Knowledge Transfer Center (RTU TKTC), and discuss a variety of intellectual property rights (IPR) issues topical for the University.
During the meeting, the possibilities for enhanced cooperation were discussed, including jointly organised trainings on different aspects of IPR protection and commercialization for RTU students, teaching staff, and researchers.
Speaking at the meeting, the LPO director Agris Batalauskis emphasized the need to collaborate even more closely and called for more active use of the opportunity to conduct a free patent search at the European Patent Office and obtain an initial patentability assessment for inventions created by RTU.
RTU representatives were also introduced to a new LPO development vision, including reorganisation, development, and international cooperation issues.
At the end of the meeting, the RTU TKTC director Laila Eliņa presented Agris Batalauskis a certificate of gratitude for the successful long-term cooperation, which contributed significantly to the development of the field of IPR protection and technology transfer, as well as promoted the exchange of knowledge and good practices at the national and international levels.
The next meeting will be held at LPO in order to continue the conversation about the necessary support to university researchers by involving representatives of all technology transfer contact points of Latvian universities.
The RTU Technology and Knowledge Transfer Centre supports the involvement of RTU scientists in valorisation activities, implements the protection and management of the University's IP, promotes the development of technology and knowledge transfer, ensuring the implementation of scientific research results in a commercially applicable manner, and closely cooperates with industry. The Centre’s activities and a wide set of support instruments for the protection of inventions created by RTU scientists and students show good results.
In 2022, RTU scientists applied for a total of 27 patents, which is the highest figure in the last seven years, including 25 Latvian patent applications, one European patent application and one international patent application, 19 of them being granted. The faculties with the largest number of submitted patent applications are the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Transport and Aeronautics with eight Latvian patent applications and the Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry with seven patent applications, including a European patent application and a PCT application.