A holistic audit of managing intellectual property: IP management in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries

The management of intellectual property (IP) within Australian government research and development agencies has changed dramatically. Increasing expectations have been placed on utilising public sector IP to both underpin economic development and augment taxes by generating new revenues. Public sector R&D management has come under greater scrutiny to commercialise and/or corporatise their activities. In 1999-2000 we were contracted by the Institute of Public Administration (IPAA Queensland) to examine IP management issues surrounding the commercialisation of technologies in The Queensland Public Sector. As part of that exercise we developed a framework to facilitate a holistic audit of IP management in government agencies, in this paper we describe this framework as it pertains to one large public sector agriculture R&D Agency, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (QDPI). The four overlapping domains of the framework are: IP generation; IP rights; IP uptake and corporate support. The framework highlights some well developed IP management practices within QDPI's traditional focus of innovation (IP generation) and IP ownership and licensing (IP rights). However, further management practice developments are required to improve the domains of IP uptake and corporate IP support.