Patents
- Legal foundations
- Advice for inventors
- Patent scouts
- Administrative procedure
- Helping inventors to help themselves
- Financial support
- PATENTReiferei®
- technology on offer
- PROvendis
- Course offers
- Patent strategy
- Patent-Mining
Patents are one of the most commonly known forms of intellectual property rights. They enable proprietary ideas and scientific innovations to be protected, as well as allowing them to be successfully marketed. In 2002 the legal framework for inventors at institutions of higher education in Germany changed dramatically. During the first years after this amendment AFO focused its activities on informing university members about the legal and economic aspects of patenting. Projects such as Ideas Mining or the Patent Office for Visions underlined the challenge for researchers to ‘publish or perish’, and gave information about alternatives.
Currently, a more structured process in patenting dominates activities: in order to increase not just the quantity but also the quality of patents, the supporting structure provided by WWU has been expanded.
In 2008 the University of Münster became one of the shareholders in the patents agency PROvendis. AFO acts as internal mediator for patent-related issues and acquires external funding to enhance the patents-related processes at WWU.
AFO-fields of work
- Patents
- Business start-up
- Science communication
- Expositions and symposia
- AFO regional
- AFO international
First steps to your patent
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