On 30th March 2023, Peter Conlon from the MU Commercialisation Office dropped by to give us a comprehensive overview of the world of intellectual property, particularly from the perspective of researchers and technology developers.
As usual, the seminar prompted some lively debate about copyright protection in the world of Chat GBT open AI and the tension between the researcher’s perceived pressure to publish or to maintain radio silence until patents have been registered. It was suggested that perhaps the solution lies in “know-how”; if the patent is registered can the know-how be documented and kept out of the public domain.
Another issue for researchers can be dealing with non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). It was emphasised that NDAs protect the conversations that may occur between entities, but they do not cover potential future inventions.