1. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN EMERGING ECONOMIES
Tbilisi, Georgia
March 31st, 2017
Patent application for a “Hamster vest”
OMER HIZIROGLU, CLP
PARTNER

2. Problem Division of global wealth in a Global economy
Sustainable economic development
Middle income trap
Life quality
Innovation based competitiveness: Transition from efficiency driven economy to innovation driven economy

3. Premise Emerging economies in a classic, capital driven economy.
What competitive advantage?
Scalability? France vs. Germany
“Technology in” vs. “Technology out”: The value added
Compete:
Low labor / raw material costs
No innovation but good products ( r & D)

4. Catching up Unequal distribution of wealth
Flow of capital & technology is conditional
Gap on availability of resources
State of mind and a long history
Political and legal stability
Strong IPR regimes and vibrant SMEs
Europe : 1 in 3 jobs out of IP intensive industries

5. IPR and the challenge for emerging economies
Driving force of global economy is no longer Capital (in the hands of the few) but Intellectual Capital (globally available)
If the use of Intellectual Capital is incentivized and maximized: a unique opportunity to become globally competitive. How?

6. A Paradigm shift Innovation Invention Technology
The Startup / University medium for diffusion
Globalization and flow of information
Technology, innovation and foreseeable legal infrastructure to fuel economic transformation:

7. Thus, the focus: SMEs drive most major economies
SMEs and Universities are the source of major innovative activity
Universities creating technology competitive SMEs
Globalization is a fact and information is widely accessible (and is critical to have access to)

8. Technology transfer
«Technology transfer is a term used to describe formal transfer of rights to use and commercialize new discoveries and innovations resulting from scientific research to another party» (AUTM definition)

9. From “Wealth of Nations”
“…raw labor is of little value. How labor is applied - how it is managed and directed, the tools provided and the skills with which it is endowed - determine the vast majority of its value”
“…raw technology is of little value. How technology is applied - how it is managed and directed, the tools provided and the skills with which it is endowed - determine the vast majority of its value”

10. Thus:
Raw technology is of little value. How it is used, diffused and managed, determines and realizes its real value.
Innovation is the ability to transform information to knowledge that has commercial application

11. Role of Universities
The cluster of a nation’s largest intellectual capital
Turning universities into a “start up factory”
Start up > SME > MNC

12. Role of Universities

13. Goal and role of University TT
To bring university research to the market in the most efficient and speedy way possible

14. Traditional View University develops a technology Secures a patent
Licenses it to a Startup
Startup gets money
Everybody is happy

15. From Lab to Market, Challenges
Research capacity, basic vs. applied research
IP awareness & ownership
Licensing opportunities
Legal and basic infrastructures
TT capacities and positive climate for TT activities
Entrepreneurship ecosystem
Universities, as NPEs are not equipped to independently commercialize technology without interfaces
Most university born technology is not market ready and require:
Further investment
Business savviness

16. For University TTOs TT is a complex business: Trained professionals
Rembrandts in the attic: Before patent licensing, identify, mine out and transfer know-how
When it comes to IP: quantity never has a quality of its own!

17. Role of the Government Gov’t must be an “enabler”
To much regulation is counterproductive
Update legal infrastructure to address challenges
Internet, 3D printing, Capital flows, Creation of startups
Create a culture
Transparency + legal infrastructures + ability to tolerate failures ( Kenneth Morse)
Create a competitive landscape to secure gov’t funding
Beware of “fund addicts” and “Zombies” on life support

18. Parting toughts
Technology flow from innovative North to non-innovative South, impact on distribution of income (Krugman, 1979)
«World is flat» (Friedman, 2005) and Globalization
Flow and availability of information
Strong highly skilled diaspora
Collaborations and open innovation
Paul Krugman in his paper, A Model of Innovation, Technology Transfer, and the World Distribution of Income points to technology lag between innovating North and noninnovating South . Innovation leads to introduction of new products which can immediately be produced in the North but only after a certain lag in the South. This lag leads to technology transfer from North to South in the context of international trade. Because innovative products tend to have a substantially higher value add, noninnovative south has to sell more low value add products. Because the demand for technology rises, trade balance shifts quickly in favor of the the innovative North.
Paul Krugman, “A Model of Innovation, Technology Transfer, and the World Distribution of
Income”,
-Since Krugman’s article of 1979 refered to above, a lot has changed. The world has gone flat. Thomas Friedman in his best selling book The World is Flat, suggests that globalization has to some extent levelled the playing field for emerging economies that have embraced the change . Since 1979 we have seen the emergence of BRIC concept with technology companies emerging from countries such as China and Korea challenging heretofore dominant companies from western Europe, U.S and Japan not only gloabaly but also on their home turfs. I will simply point to Samsung, HTC, Huawei challenging Apple, Nokia, Motorala, Sony in the highly dynamic ITC sector. We are also seeing a rise in cross border acquisition of technology SMEs.
 Thus the pressure on US econmy and US response with America ınvents act

19. THANKS!
Any questions?
@omerhizir