Institutional change and academic patenting: French universities and the Innovation Act of 1999

The Innovation Act was introduced by the French government in 1999, with the aim of encouraging academic institutions to protect and commercialize their scientists’ inventions. We explore the effects of the Act on the distribution of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) over academic scientists’ inventions. We find that, before the Act, academic institutions had a strong tendency to leave such IPRs in the hands of their main funders, namely public research organizations (such as CNRS or INSERM), and business companies. After the introduction of the Act, French academic institutions increased their propensity to claim IPRs over their employees’ inventions, mainly under the form of co-ownership with business companies. This result varies with the technological class of the patent, the presence and age of a technology transfer office within the university, and the university size and type.