UM, ranked second among French universities in the latest INPI rankings
Montpellier University ranks second among French universities in the latest list of public/private patent applicants published by the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI). It ranks 35th with 38 applications in 2017.
UM ahead of Bordeaux and the Sorbonne
Since 2004, the Intellectual Property Observatory has compiled an annual ranking of patent applicants to the INPI based on the number of published patent applications. For the 2017 results, applications filed between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, were taken into account (it takes 18 months between the filing of a patent application and its publication).
With 38 applications published in 2017, UM is the second French university in the ranking after Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University. Ranked 35th (up from 74th in 2016), it is ahead of the University of Bordeaux (42nd) and Sorbonne University (45th).
Unsurprisingly, the top 50 patent filers include the leading French industrial groups that invest in research, as well as thirteen research organizations and nine foreign companies. The Valeo Group remains in first place with 1,110 published patent applications (994 applications published in 2016). The PSA Group ranks second, rising from 930 applications published in 2016 to 1,021 applications published in 2017. Third place is held by Safran with 795 published applications (758 published in 2016). The French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission remains in fourth place with the same number of published applications as in 2016: 684 published applications.
SATT plays a key role in promoting UM projects
As a privileged partner of the UM, the regional technology transfer acceleration company (SATT Ax-Lr) plays a key role in the institution's strong performance in this ranking. It is the SATT that identifies promising technologies among those proposed by the UM, finances them, and supports them through to the filing of patent applications with the INPI.
"This result is therefore the fruit of a synergy between the excellence of UM research and the added value of SATT AxLR in terms of protecting and maturing technologies,"says François Pierrot, Vice President for Commercialization and Industrial Partnerships at the University.
"Given that SATT matures a project for an average of 18 months and that the publication of a patent also takes 18 months from the date of filing, we can consider that we are now reaping the rewards of the work carried out with SATT over the last few years,"concludes the Vice President.