Prague, Aug 3 (CTK) – The new method of assessing science that the government approved in February should motivate Czech researchers to cover the costs related to the gaining of foreign patents for their new inventions, Czech Deputy Prime Minister for Science Pavel Belobradek said today.
As most Czech inventions are only patented in the Czech Republic, foreign researchers and foreign industry are not interested in them.
Last week, researchers from Prague’s 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University said American doctors appropriated their discovery which might contribute to cancer treatment and which received a Czech patent in 2012.
Czech scientists said they do not have enough finances to pay for international patents. A Czech patent costs approximately 10,000 crowns, while foreign patents cost hundreds of thousands of crowns.
Belobradek said Czech researchers can apply for the finances needed to receive the patents abroad from two operational programmes – Entrepreneurship and Innovations for Competitiveness, and Research, Development and Education.
He said Czech researchers were increasingly interested in receiving the patents protection abroad and the new assessment of research organisations should encourage this trend.
According to the Czech Statistical Office (CSU), the number of Czech applications for foreign patents slightly increased over the past ten years. In 2014, Czechs applied for 187 international patents, which is 18 patents per one million inhabitants, while the EU average is 101 patents per million inhabitants and the OECD average is 138 patents. In 2007, the Czechs had 12 patents per million inhabitants.
In 2014, Czechs received six European patents and 13 U.S. patents per one million inhabitants, while the EU average was ten and six times higher, respectively. In 2007 Czechs received two U.S. patents per one million inhabitants.
In 2016, the Czech Office for Industrial Ownership received 180 international patent applications from Czech inventors, Belobradek’s spokesman Radek Melichar said, adding that the total number will be higher as some applications were sent directly to the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
According to international assessments and an analysis of Czech research from 2014, the Czech Republic has a high-quality scientific background and top experts, but it lags behind in applied research and the system of controlling and financing science.
($1=22.099 crowns)
