Let's not be philanthropists, protect our innovations!

On Tuesday, 25 April 2016, the 9th Luxembourg Intellectual Property Day was held in Belval, organised by the Institute of Intellectual Property (Institut de la Propriété Intellectuelle - IPIL). This 2016 edition was dedicated to questions of intellectual property in public research with an important panel of speakers from the National Research Fund (Fonds National de la Recherche or FNR), the University of Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), and of course, LIST. This topic falls within the context of the law of 4 December, 2014, which reorganised all players in public research in Luxembourg and in which legislation highlights the mission to valorise the results of their work. This mission is not easy. Some people compare it to crossing the "Valley of the Shadow of Death", which now prevents the results of public research from leaving laboratories and being applied in industry and marketed.

As a Research and Technology Organisation (RTO), LIST clearly positions itself as a driver for technological development and transfer, on the border between research and industrial application. Its goal is to accelerate the time it takes to market technological innovations resulting from public research. In this context, the protection of intellectual property has a key role to play. Innovation without protection equals philanthropy. During his presentation, Professor Gabriel Crean, CEO of LIST, particularly stressed the correlation between economic development and the employment market and strong policies protecting intellectual property, as well as the appeal of a country's patent portfolio to foreign investors. It is important for Luxembourg to have a strong policy to protect intellectual property, especially in the areas in which the country wants to diversify and expand its economy.

LIST, for its part, protects its high-potential results. The number of patent applications continues to increase. The most promising technologies include:

• the inactivation of antibiotics present in waste water
• strengthening vegetable fibre hydrophobicity via biotechnology
• controlling plant pathogens via biopesticides
• an indoor positioning method
• a method of collaborative management using tangible table
• new biphasic composite materials containing carbon nanotubes
• plasma reactors and a fluidised bed reactor for producing innovative coatings and composite materials.

and many more.