Trabalho

Quim. Nova, Vol. 36, No. 10, 1491-1496, 2013
INOVAÇÃO & PROPRIEDADE INDUSTRIAL & INDÚSTRIA QUÍMICA
Adelaide Maria de Souza Antunes*,#
Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial, Rua Mayrink Veiga, nº 9, 19º andar, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brasil
Recebido em 10/7/13; aceito em 27/8/13; publicado na web em 18/9/13

INNOVATION & INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY & THE CHEMICALS INDUSTRY. The main aim of this paper was to contribute to reflections in Brazil on the need to transfer knowledge held at universities and R&D institutions over to companies, i.e. to transfer scientific knowledge of chemistry to technology. It discusses how the competitiveness of countries is increasingly dependent on their technological capacity. The chemicals industry is a fundamental driver of social, environmental, economic and industrial indicators of sustainable development. In Brazil, the chemicals industry’s deficit has grown over the last three decades. Patents are important sources of information because patent documents contain 75% of all technological information available. The National Institute of Industrial Property in Brazil has created a Technology Observatory with the purpose of identifying and analyzing technological information contained in patent documents within the ambit of partnerships with government entities or business associations, in order to support their technology-related decision-making processes. The paper gives examples of ethanol and biotechnology patent documents, including pharmaceuticals, of which there are very few in Brazil. However, a few of the patent applications identified are filed in Brazil, giving the country the opportunity to transform this scientific knowledge into technology by means of partnership agreements with companies. Finally, the paper presents information on the patent applications filed by the world’s leading chemicals companies as measured by their revenues, and the respective numbers of patent applications in the last five years