Intellectual Property

Intellectual property assets when properly protected and commercialized, possess the potential to enhance job creation/retention, foster innovation/research, produce revenue as well as non-monetary benefits to mankind such as the creation of intellectual property assets such as the Polio vaccine.

The State of Connecticut through, for example, its investments of grants, public-private partnerships, employee staff time and loans to businesses of varying size and viability has developed, caused to be developed or may in the future develop “intangible assets” (often referred to as “intellectual property”) which the State owns or in which it has (or should have) a beneficial interest.

Intellectual Property Study - In 2011, the Office of Policy and Management requested information related to intellectual property from the University of Connecticut, the Department of Public Health, the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station and Connecticut Innovations Inc..

The objectives of the intellectual property study were to

1. Identify those “intangible assets” (i.e. intellectual property) which are owned by the State or which the State has (or should have) and ownership interest;
   
   
2. Create a centralized, coordinated inventory of all of the State’s intellectual property assets;
   
   
3. Determine the appropriate manner to maximize the value of intellectual property assets (revenue, job creation/retention, etc.) for the benefit of the State and its taxpayers; 
   
   
4. Identify how intellectual property is currently being identified, protected and is being used by a sample of State Agencies; 
   
   
5. Recommend how to best identify, protect and use intellectual property going forward, across all state agencies; and
   
   
6. Attempt to measure the rate of return on the State’s investments of, for example, appropriated funds, grants and loans.