The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has launched an extensive program to promote the creation of patent clusters over the next few years. These massive investments in in-house research will enable Fraunhofer scientists to move ahead with ideas and inventions that merit protection and secure their economic exploitation through families of patents. The first two projects, “Solar cells based on metallurgical silicon” and “Micro fuel cells” are each being funded to the tune of up to 10 million euros.
Professor Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, explains the in-house research initiative: “We plan to systematically expand our pool of ideas and secure promising new areas by obtaining clusters of patents.” Under the new program, over 100 million euros will be made available over the next five to ten years for in-house research that will generate intellectual property. “We invest a large proportion of our MP3 license royalties in new intellectual property, with a view to gaining significant revenues from licenses in the years to come,” is how Bullinger describes the strategy. The ultimate aim of the initiative is to safeguard the intellectual property that underpins Germany’s status as a leading industrial nation, so that we can successfully participate in the emerging growth markets.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has for many years been one of the top ten patent applicants in Germany – among German applicants. In 2006 alone, 574 inventions were registered with the Fraunhofer patent and license department. Last year the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft filed patent applications for 396 inventions with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. 473 applications were filed on an international level.
267 new exploitation contracts were signed in 2006, raising the total number of exploitation contracts concluded over the past five years to 1145. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft netted approximately
92 million euros in license fees in 2006. Two thirds of this sum can be attributed to the MP3 audio coding patents. Under the new program, Fraunhofer’s patent portfolio is to be reinforced and systematically expanded. It aims specifically to generate and patent inventions of a type that address attractive major markets and promise clear economic benefits. The objective can thus be described as the strategic accumulation of IP protected under patent law that will invest Fraunhofer with unique selling rights in selected fields of technology, creating the potential for a long-term income from license fees in addition to its ongoing contract research business. The in-house research that this will call for is to receive large-scale funding over an extended period of time, so that it will be possible to create patent clusters that provide the widest possible coverage of whole fields of technology.
The first two projects were approved early this year. The goal of the “Solar cells based on metallurgical silicon” project is to circumvent the shortage of highly pure crystalline silicon by making use of low-priced “dirty” silicon. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg has developed promising concepts that must now be rapidly developed to maturity and legally protected.
In the project on “Micro fuel cells in multilayer ceramics for volume production”, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS and ISE are in the process of developing two micro fuel cell systems. One is a portable high-temperature fuel cell system in the 100-W output class that is equipped with a reformer and can be directly operated with available fuels such as liquid gas or bioethanol. The other is a small low-temperature fuel cell system for electrical devices and has an output power of about one watt.
In a further, considerably smaller program entitled “Challenge”, Fraunhofer Institutes are given the chance to pursue unconventional ideas that may have the potential to open up huge opportunities. The goal of this program is to find out whether these hitherto unknown avenues are actually viable. The Executive Board has agreed to make over 5 million euros available for this purpose over the next three years.
“We expect to see great results by purposefully and systematically tapping the potential of creative minds,” stresses the Fraunhofer president. “But as we do so, we must also take care that the new intellectual property is adequately protected and its exploitation is assured.”