Ongoing research and development also entails the need to protect new results - knowledge, skills, technology. This is also the case in the long-term research of colleagues Rostislav Zemek, Jiří Nermuť and Jana Konopická from the BC Institute of Entomology, whose goal is to find a comprehensive method of pest control for organic and biodynamic agriculture farming that prevents the emergence of resistance and leaves no residues.
A number of utility models already registered and, in particular, the original Czech patent of R. Zemek and his colleagues from 2008, the idea of which is being further developed, are now followed by another industrial property right in the form of the newly granted Slovak patent No. 288968 entitled "Insecticidal and acaricidal additive to carrier substrate for plant cultivation". The combination of a Czech utility model and a Slovak patent now provides the possibility of wider application of R&D results in practice and is the result of long-term efforts not only in the field of scientific research, but also in the field of cooperation with partners from the application sphere.
We would like to thank our colleagues very much for their efforts, dozens of meetings with us and representatives of companies and public administrations, and once again CONGRATULATIONS on the newly granted patent.
To the two already registered "MetMapper" trademarks, the figurative trademark METABOLITE MAPPER has been newly added, protecting the full name of the software tool developed at BC, with which a database of more than 2500 metabolites is connected. This platform facilitates the characterization and identification of natural substances and is designed to automatically process data from analytical files generated by mass spectrometers. This multi-user platform is intended for analytical and data services, so the widest possible protection of its designation and basically the only possibility of intellectual property protection of software in the Czech Republic is in place here. We believe that the newly registered trademark will help colleagues from the Laboratory of Analytical Biochemistry and Metabolomics not only to protect, but also to promote their R&D results when applied in practice.
Rostislav Zemek from the Laboratory of Applied Entomology has been cooperating for a long time with the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) on the transfer of his R&D results into practice and the application of the related patent and related utility models in the form of an auxiliary soil preparation. In order to make the new product more distinguishable on the market, the TTO team secured the registration of the trade name in the form of the word trademark SUPRESIL DUO with the Industrial Property Office.
Many thanks to Ing. Zemek and his colleagues for their cooperation and unceasing commitment, congratulations on obtaining the trademark and we believe that you will soon be able to test on your own plants the unique soil preparation providing a combination of the effect of two bioagents against important plant pests.
Technology Transfer Office obtained another IPR for a BC technology. This time the Industrial Property Office has added 2 new trademarks to its register, namely the word and figurative form of the MetMapper sign. The combination of these two trademarks now protects the multi-user platform for analytical and data services developed by colleagues in the Analytical Biochemistry and Metabolomics Laboratory.
We thank our colleagues for their confidence in protecting intellectual property and for their cooperation in applying their R&D results in practice and congratulate them on their newly acquired trademarks.
Technology Transfer Office obtained another IPR for a BC technology. This time the Industrial Property Office has added 2 new trademarks to its register, namely the word and figurative form of the MetMapper sign. The combination of these two trademarks now protects the multi-user platform for analytical and data services developed by colleagues in the Analytical Biochemistry and Metabolomics Laboratory. We thank our colleagues for their confidence in protecting intellectual property and for their cooperation in applying their R&D results in practice and congratulate them on their newly acquired trademarks.
Colleagues from the Laboratory of Applied Entomology - Petr Doležal and Markéta Davídková - have a unique know-how and have come up with a unique solution in the form of a trap used for selective trapping of the large pine weevil. This innovative technical solution was already protected in August in the form of a European industrial design, which was registered in the EUIPO Register of Industrial Designs on 12 August 2021 as the Community industrial design "Trapping device (trap) for the large pine weevil". This protects its appearance, respectively. design. The very essence of the technical solution is then protected by a utility model, which was entered into the register of utility models of the Czech Republic on 5 October 2021 under the name "Trap for catching large pine weevil". The combination of both forms of industrial property protection thus provides the necessary degree of legal certainty and a solid basis for subsequent communication with entities from the application sphere and the effective application of given research and development results in practice. These negotiations are currently underway, and a related license agreement is also being prepared. At the same time, we would like to congratulate the inventors on the double protection of their technical solution and thank them for the perfect cooperation in the process of transferring their knowledge and skills into practice.
The large pine weevil is an important pest of coniferous seedlings and, in specific cases, deciduous seedlings in Eurasia. Together with the bark beetle, which causes billions of dollars of damage every year and which now leaves large clearings after prematurely harvested stands, the large pine weevil threatens not only the primary production functions of the forest and sustainable management, but by damaging seedlings and making forest regeneration more difficult, it also greatly reduces the ecological functions of the forest (climate, soil and water conservation). This is another major challenge in the context of current global climate change, requiring rapid and effective solutions.
Link to the document in the IPO database
The Biology Centre CAS has been actively involved in the fight against COVID-19 since the very beginning of the pandemic. During more than a year of its duration, BC has extensive experience with this virus, its diagnostics and procedures preventing its spread. The initial testing of patient samples from South Bohemian hospitals by PCR was soon followed by research projects, one of which resulted in the latest utility model, the so-called "small patent", registered under the heading BC.
Thanks to the support of TAČR, colleagues from the BC Institute of Parasitology - Mgr. Jan Perner, Ph.D., Bc. Tereza Hatalová, Mgr. Václav Hönig, Ph.D., RNDr. Martin Palus, Ph.D., RNDr. Radek Šíma, Ph.D. - were involved in a project under the internal GAMA 2 grant call to develop a rapid and universal diagnostic for this virus that would be independent of specialized equipment and personnel while providing similar robustness to existing established laboratory molecular biology methods. The result of their joint scientific work is “Primers for amplification control for detecting coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by isothermal amplification LAMP and kit for detecting coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by isothermal amplification LAMP”. The inventors of this solution, together with the team of the Technology Transfer Office, are currently communicating intensively with partners from the application sphere regarding the possibilities of ensuring IVD certification and applying this diagnostic in practice. On behalf of the entire team of the Technology Transfer Office, we congratulate the inventors on obtaining industrial legal protection of research and development results and look forward to further cooperation in their transfer into practice.
link to the IPO database:
https://isdv.upv.cz/webapp/resdb.print_detail.det?pspis=PUV/38858&plang=EN
The Technology Transfer Office has long strived to apply the results of BC research and development in practice. In addition to licensing agreements and the commercialization of research results, our activities also include the support of socially relevant topics by fulfilling the ideas of corporate social responsibility. BC started such cooperation with E.ON Česká republika, s.r.o. two years ago, which provided BC with support for the acquisition of photovoltaics for the smart hive project. The smart hive is developed in cooperation with the Department of Applied Informatics at the University of South Bohemia in Č. Budějovice and aims in particular to contribute to improving the health status of bees, especially by early signaling of the course of key life parameters in the hive, monitoring the manifestations of colony activity in the area of the entrance to the hive and refining the detection of the parasite - Varroa destructor mite - on the hive mat.
The new bee tracking system uses the latest knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence, neural networks, deep learning and IoT technologies. Thanks to this, it is possible to automatically monitor variables such as the temperature and humidity in the hive, the temperature in a tuft of bees, the temperature, humidity and barometric pressure outside the hive, bee sounds, hive weight, CO2 concentration in the hive, as well as the visual monitoring of the hives by the camera system - the frequency of bees entering and leaving the hives. Beekeepers can have an overview not only of the condition of the colony, the conditions inside the hive and the surrounding area, but they can also monitor their colonies, for example, using GPS in case of hive theft or using a scale to monitor the growth, to detect honey theft, swarming, etc.
The smart hive is still being modified, but it is already collecting valuable data and is ready to help not only beekeepers, but also the popularization of science. On 6 September 2021, the first presentation of the Smart Hive took place in the BC Experimental Apiary with the participation of representatives of E.ON, thanks to whose support the Smart Hive is one step more autonomous and will be presented to the general public during the Festival of Science 2021, which starts on Wednesday 8 September. This confirms that the basis for the successful transfer of knowledge and skills into practice is regular communication not only between researchers and academic institutions, but especially communication with partners from the application sphere and, last but not least, popularization of research and development results to the public.
The Technology Transfer Office of the Biology Centre organized an International conference on knowledge and technology transfer on June 3, 2021, focusing on academic spin-off companies, which garnered many positive responses from the professional public and pushed the knowledge and technology transfer in the Czech Republic ahead a bit. The event took place in a hybrid form, so the conference was attended not only by 110 participants in person, but also by more than 100 online participants.
Conference record:
The conference participants were welcomed by the event moderator Aleš Vlk and the introductory words were given by the director of the Biology Centre prof. Libor Grubhoffer and Deputy Mayor of České Budějovice Ing. Ivo Moravec.
The conference was attended not only by representatives of Czech knowledge transfer offices, but also by representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czechinvest, TAČR, ASTP, Transfer, Czech universities, the Academy of Sciences and from abroad representatives of MaxPlanck, Szeged University, CTT Jožef Stefan Institute, Institute of Innovation and Technology, the British Embassy, foreign companies Variolytics GmbH and Orange Quantum Systems.
The importance of spin-off companies within national strategies, the emergence of spin-off companies on academia, foreign experience with the establishment of spin-off companies, and finally a simulation block to verify practical knowledge with the establishment of spin-offs in the Czech legislative framework.
In the afternoon discussion panel, there were representatives of both Western Europe, where university spin-off companies have their established position, and representatives of Central and Eastern Europe, where the support system is still being formed. Panelists from Germany, Great Britain, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary took part in the discussion.
The conclusions of the conference confirmed that the attitude of researchers and the management of research organizations is improving. However, many national programs or strategies are also changing, which reflect the dynamically changing environment of knowledge transfer in the EU, and the innovation environment is being cultivated. The positive news is that there are no legislative obstacles to the establishment of spin-offs in the Czech Republic. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the development of academic spin-offs would benefit if research organizations had their venture capital. TACR is preparing new programs for establishing a spin-off, either a continuation of GAMA or a new program SIGMA. Another call for feasibility studies is being prepared within TAČR, in cooperation with several other European agencies. Suggestions from the conference will be further developed in the Transfer working groups and the BC Technology Transfer Office will be there.
Biology Centre CAS has a new trademark since 30th December 2020 registered in the Register of Trademarks, and that is SOWA. SOWA research infrastructure, which is engaged in research of soil and water ecosystems in the context of sustainable land use and focuses on the development of new technologies, applications, approaches and strategies for efficient utilization of natural resources will be able to use its own name as a brand.
Research and development carried out within individual scientific teams, consultations and all other services, educational activities, including the organization of professional trainings, scientific conferences or the publication of their own materials, will be able to be marked with this trademark ensuring their distinctiveness from others.
A complete list of goods and services for which the trademark has been registered is part of a document available in the public database of the Industrial Property Office. Likewise, it is possible to contact the Technology Transfer Office at any time, where we are ready to answer any questions you may have and consult with you about the correct way to use the trademark.
On 2 December 2020, a new trademark of the Biology Centre CAS was entered in the trademark register – PROVEN IN THE TROPICS. The trademark " PROVEN IN THE TROPICS " will be awarded to technologies and products that will prove successful in the demanding conditions of Papua New Guinea, where a research center founded by prof. Vojtěch Novotný has been operating for more than 20 years. However, all BC scientists can participate, if they are interested in testing pre-agreed products during their research expeditions in other tropical destinations.
The Technology Transfer Office will ensure communication with potential applicants from among companies that will want to test their products in extreme conditions and, in cooperation with BC scientists, will also set criteria for evaluation and subsequent granting of the trademark.
If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact us with suggestions for possible technologies or services that could be tested, as well as your personal participation in proving in the tropics.
