Joint concerns on the European Innovation Council's Intellectual Property provisions

Eight associations of research-performing organisations and knowledge transfer professionals jointly voice their concerns on the Intellectual Property (IP) provisions for Transition and Pathfinder projects of the European Innovation Council (EIC).

The joint statement, signed by LERU, The Guild, Coimbra Group, Aurora, EARTO, EU-LIFE, ASTP, and IDEA League, calls upon the European Commission to apply the standard IP rules of Horizon Europe instead of different EIC IP provisions that conflict with institutional, national and regional rules. The organisations also ask to strengthen the capacities of knowledge valorisation services, as promoted in the Council Recommendation on the guiding principles for knowledge valorisation, the Council conclusions on the New European Innovation Agenda, and the European Parliament’s report on the implementation of the EIC.

In the statement, six specific issues are highlighted, concluding that the EIC IP provisions are not only counterproductive and hinder knowledge valorisation, but are also unworkable. This is not the first time that LERU expressed its concerns regarding EIC inventors. Already at the end of 2021 and earlier this year, LERU asked the European Commission to change or even repeal the concept of EIC inventors.