Patents, Licensing, Start ups – A Comprehensive Service for Max Planck Scientists

It is and remains the most important task for the staff of a research institute to carry out excellent (basic) research and to publish the findings of this research in the highest-ranking journals possible. By publishing your results, but also by training young scientists and collaborating with colleagues from science and/or industry around the world, you actively transfer knowledge and technology that makes your research results useful to society.

In this context, the protection of one's own intellectual property (IP), e.g. through patent applications or more generally Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), may be necessary. Specific legal, procedural and temporal aspects need to be taken into account.

The Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG) and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) offer the opportunity to obtain intellectual property rights (mainly patent applications) for technological developments with commercial potential. This process might appear complicated (but it isn’t) and also involves considerable costs. In order to avoid unnecessary costs and use limited financial resources wisely, Max Planck Innovation (MI) works with inventors from the very beginning to identify the scientific and market-relevant aspects of the invention and supports inventors through all steps of the patent application process. We work closely with different patent law firms to draft the application. Finally, MI helps commercialise your inventions by licensing them to an industrial partner or by founding a start-up company.

We explain how IP protection (e.g.: filing patent applications, securing know-how and handling of software) works. We will show you how you can reconcile your priority publication interests with IP protection. We give you an insight into the commercialization prospects of your technology, in particular how we can support start-ups, especially the founding of start-ups and/or in the formulation of third-party funding applications.

If you would like to meet with Wolfgang and Sebastian during their visit, please contact Susan LaMoreaux.