Intellectual property management and the dissemination of information

Hosted by the European Domestic Agency, the first meeting of the ITER Council Working Group on Intellectual Property Management and Dissemination of Information took place in Barcelona from 3-5 March 2009. Experts from the Members and the Domestic Agencies exchanged ideas with the ITER Organization under the chairmanship of Vassilis Koutsiouris. During the three days a draft text for the "ITER Organization Rules on Intellectual Property Management and the Dissemination of Information" was developed based on the ITER Agreement's Annex on Information and Intellectual Property.

Discussions focused not only on near-term items such as protection of background intellectual property, publication rules and training needs, but also on longer term strategies such as what happens with the intellectual property rights after dissolution of the ITER Organization.

A report will be presented to the ITER Council meeting in June.