Australians patently lacking 10:21am 21.04.08

While many Australians are innovative, not enough are protecting their intellectual property says Adam Liberman, president elect of the Licensing Executives Society, parent organisation of LESANZ, its Australia/New Zealand branch.

"Why are innovators not adequately understanding and using the intellectual property system?” he questions. “Scientists are taught science, scientists aren't taught business … It's a very narrow focus, and that's the problem."
 
In the first four years of this decade, Australians produced 2.9 percent of the world’s scientific publications but only 0.4 percent of patents worldwide. Liberman sees this as a failure to protect innovations, especially with regard to understanding the value of legal issues around discoveries and inventions.
 
"When the scientists come to deal with intellectual property they do it in an antagonistic sense rather than doing it as a part of the strategic foundation elements that they need to understand," Liberman noted.