GMV, with the collaboration of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), has developed patent-managing software called IDEAS. This web application, incorporating the open technology of the Patents Office, protects the industrial and intellectual property of its research organizations such as the universities Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Universidad de Alicante, the National Aerospace Institute (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial: INTA), the Catalan Chemical Research Institute (Institut Catalá d’Investigació Química: ICIQ) and UAB itself.

In the words of Spain’s Science, Technology and Innovation Law 14/2011 (Ley de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación) “the generation of knowledge in all fields, the spreading of this knowledge further afield and its application for obtaining a social or economic benefit are all essential activities for the progress of Spain’s society; this progress has been key to Spain’s economic and social convergence on the international stage”. Universities and companies like GMV contribute towards this endeavor with their research, innovation and technological development, putting into practice one of the key thrusts of the EU plan “European Higher Education Area”, which seeks, among other things, to help new graduates in their careers by driving cooperation between universities and companies.

According to the report on The State of European University-Business Cooperation in diverse European countries, drawn up by the research center Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre of the Münster University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Münster, Germany), with the support of the European Commission’s Directorate General of Education and Culture, Spain’s most highly developed University-Business cooperation mechanisms are technology company incubators (spin-offs) and the presence of companies on university boards, scoring above the EU average on both counts.

GMV itself was born as a university spin-off, so university collaboration has been hard-wired into the company from the word go, prompting it to take part in research projects and teaching activities. One of the prime examples of business-university cooperation in which the company has participated is IDEAS, a patent-management tool designed in response to UAB’s need of protecting its researcher’s industrial property in a swift, secure and simple way. This application manages all types of industrial property (Patents, Technological Bid, Copyright, Agreements, Trademarks, TBCs, Projects, Knowhow, etc.) offering the information in a detailed way: state, dates and deadlines, legal documentation and information and the patent’s complete genealogical tree. In another words the application accompanies the researcher on the whole journey from the seminal idea to the final consolidation as a technological and commercial bid.

If innovation is the germ of progress, the protection of industrial property rights, as reflected by the European Parliament in passing Directive 2016/943, has to be guaranteed by the competent bodies. This “Directive on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure”, issued on 8 June 2016, gives EU member states a consistent legislative framework that helps to make the European Union a more vigorous and competitive economic area. In pursuit of this overall objective GMV is now putting its R&D knowhow and expertise in the form of this groundbreaking industrial- and intellectual-property-management proposal, IDEAS.

For more information on IDEAS and access to a demo site: http://www.ideas.barcelona