The Institut Telecom, a technology transfer player
Contractual research | Collaboration with Institut Telecom | Protection of research results | Transferring technology to industry | Technology transfer and business start-up
The Institut Telelcom fulfils a technology transfer mission, the
objective of which is to forge links between businesses and research
laboratories. This link is nurtured through technology transfer,
long-term partnerships, tests, exchanges and platform sharing, giving
industry access to laboratories results and expertise.
Development of contractual research
The Institut Telecom enjoys lasting and beneficial relations with industry, through which it has forged its experience in the field of technology transfer. Industrial partners are attracted to the excellence of the research and teaching staff’s expertise in cutting-edge, ground-breaking fields, or those which are application vectors.
The Institut Telecom continues to maintain and develop relations with industry for many reasons :
- to increase its resources for research development purposes,
- to maintain research and teaching staff experience in the engineering profession,
- to strengthen links and dialogue with the economic community,
- to support the national competitiveness drive of the industrial fabric: major accounts, small and medium-sized companies, start-ups.
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The Institut Telecom-Alcatel master agreement
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In 2002, Institut Telecom signed a master agreement with Alcatel in the context of the Alcatel Research Partnership program, which covers the rigorous selection of key universities and research institutes on the world stage.
"GET represents an international pole of expertise boasting a diversity of skills paving the way for collaborative arrangements in almost all technological fields that are of interest to Alcatel", points out Joëlle Gauthier, Research and Innovation vice-president with Alcatel.
To date collaborative agreements have been launched in four fields:
- mobile broad band services,
- network and service management,
- optical communication networks,
- satellite telecommunications.
Many results have already been obtained and given rise to joint international scientific papers or are currently established on experimental platforms.
Principles of collaboration with the Institut Telecom
A policy covering research contract pricing and results protection, common to the three schools, has been implemented.
The principles which guarantee the ownership of research results are :
- compliance with rules of competition, freedom of publication ;
- co-ownership of results, their possible re-use for the purposes of teaching and the pursuit of research;
- Institut Télécom and its researchers getting a share of the profits arising from commercial exploitation;
- the definition of the responsibility and commitments of the Institut Telecom.
Protection of research results
The purpose of the technology transfer policy is to identify sources of innovation and protect the intellectual property of research results.
Appropriate legal instruments, such as patents, software and brand registration guarantee the identification of the Institut Telecom's heritage, its economic support and the dissemination of results. In this context, the Institut Telecom promotes the gradual implementation of protective measures and a responsive and realistic patents policy. In 2004, Institut Telecom obtained 12 patents with an international extension for half of them.
Transferring technology to industry
The technology transfer policy aims to ensure that technology is transferred to economic players as quickly as possible.
Some transfers have already been successfully implemented, such as a business start-up led by professors at Telecom Bretagne (Optogone), the joint Institut Telecom/France Télécom R&D international utilization of a portfolio of patents in the field of turbocodes, active involvement in international standardization bodies on the subject of industrial patents (MPEG4), granting of licenses to start-ups, small and medium-sized companies and major groups (Qualcomm).
> Contact
Christian Picory
Coordinator for Technology Transfers
Institut Telecom
Tel : 33(0)1 45 81 78 17
>> Industry partnerships
Turbocodes
An example of a partnership in which Institut Telecom draws on the experience of a major operator, France Télécom R&D, to ensure the commercialization of licences covering a joint portfolio.
In 2003, the components manufacturer Qualcomm acquired a turbocode licence.
MPEG-4
An agreement allowing the Institut Telecom to be fully and directly involved in the long and expensive process of international standardisation, by pooling its efforts with those of a major manufacturer.
>> Protection of research results
Patent registrations in the fields of turbocodes, optics, audio and video data compression, sound and image capture systems, security, etc.
Licences in the field of digital communication and transmission by acoustic waves, multimedia image compression, turbocodes, etc.ondation TELECO
>> Fondation Telecom at the service of the Institut Telecom's industrial partnerships
Comprising major companies from the ICST sector, the Fondation Telecom , alongside the group's Department of Scientific Affairs, helps to fund numerous cooperative research projects, involving teams of research and teaching staff from all the schools on themes of strategic interest to industry: usages, multimedia, mobility, security, etc.
Donor companies thus have priority and favoured access to the potential of the schools' research. with a view to the implementation of subsequent contractual collaboration.
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