The University of Santiago has a solid portfolio of legally protected technologies, including patents, microorganism registrations, industrial designs, and other intellectual property (IP) mechanisms.
These innovations have a direct impact on areas such as health, food, mining, clean energy, nanotechnology, and education, among others. But why is it crucial to protect research results? As part of Intellectual Property Day, celebrated on April 26, academics from Usach share their experiences and views on the importance of IP as a way to protect knowledge.
1- Dr. Alfredo Artigas A. – Faculty of Engineering: Researcher, Director of the Metallurgical Engineering Department, and co-founder of USensing (a Usach spin-off focused on mining), highlights the power of technological protection. He notes it has allowed them to “secure exclusive use and commercialization of our technologies, solidify our unique supplier position, and drive the development of innovations that bring significant value to the mining industry.”
2- Dra. Sylvia Contreras S. – Faculty of Humanities: Aimed at teachers working in school reintegration and re-entry programs, pedagogiasparalajusticiasocial.cl is a digital platform protected by trademark registration. One of its creators, Dr. Sylvia Contreras, an academic in the Department of Education, points out that the platform as a public service “has safeguarded the common, accessible, and ethical nature of collectively produced knowledge. Rather than restricting its use, it seeks to protect the principles that gave rise to it and to recognize the diverse knowledge that makes up its content.”
3- Dr. Renato Chávez R. – Faculty of Chemistry and Biology: Academic and researcher in the Department of Biology, Dr. Renato Chávez, highlights the importance of protecting technologies. “It means that innovation can take place in a legally secure environment, which allows access to funding and other support without the risk of losing ownership of the innovation. This facilitates research. If there were no possibility of intellectual property protection, the alternative would be secrecy, which would hinder the development of research into a potentially applicable technology.”
4- Dra. María Angélica Ganga M. – Faculty of Technology: The researcher and current director of the Department of Food Science and Technology has two patents and a licensed product. She maintains that “the State, through its universities, makes efforts to develop both basic and applied knowledge, especially in new technologies. Academics and students bring all their experience and knowledge to their research, resulting in innovative products or improved production processes. This effort, which is both economic and intellectual—one of a country’s greatest assets—makes it very important to protect the products and technologies that are generated.”
5- Dr. Matías Díaz D. – Faculty of Engineering: The director of the Electrical Engineering Department and co-founder of E2 Ingeniería, a spin-off born at Usach with a focus on electromobility, emphasizes that protecting intellectual property is a way of giving value to the knowledge generated at the university. “It allows us to safeguard our developments for future commercialization. Intellectual property protection is also very important because it enables the creation of science and technology-based companies that take these technologies and bring them to market, closing the cycle between research, technological development, and real-world application,” says the researcher.
6- Dra. Brenda Modak C. – Faculty of Chemistry and Biology: The academic and researcher in the Department of Environmental Sciences is an inventor with four patents granted and one pending at the national level. From her perspective, intellectual property “is an important and secure way to protect the results that have been the product of a lot of work, effort, and creativity as researchers.” She adds that protecting inventions “encourages creativity and innovation and therefore motivates researchers in their work to find solutions to different problems in society and industry.”
7- Dr. John Kern M. – Faculty of Engineering: Researcher and director of the Doctoral Program in Engineering Sciences with a specialization in Automation, he considers IP to be a way of “validating research that generates concrete results that can be applied by third parties to improve processes or systems.” He adds that, in this way, “it is linked to formal procedures that safeguard rights of use, providing legal protection against unauthorized use.”
8- Dr. Federico Tasca G.- Faculty of Chemistry and Biology: The academic and researcher in the Department of Materials Chemistry has led R&D projects focused on the development of electrocatalysts and biophotopanels from algae and enzymes, the results of which he has patented. He points out that IP is key to giving real value to research. “It protects the knowledge generated and enables its transfer to industry, business development, spin-offs or start-ups, and a concrete impact. It also facilitates the commercialization or licensing of technologies and gives visibility to the project.”
9- Dra. Karen Manquián C. - Faculty of Chemistry and Biology: Head of the University Technical Degree in Physical and Chemical Analysis and researcher at the Soil and Environment Laboratory, emphasizes that “protecting technologies allows developments to be commercialized, research investment to be recovered, and prevents them from being copied.” She also says that “it facilitates strategic alliances between universities, companies, and other actors in the ecosystem by clearly establishing the rights to a technology,” she points out.
10- Dr. Ricardo Vega V. – Faculty of Engineering: The academic and director of the Center for Hydrogen Economics has a distinguished career in research. He recently obtained a patent in Japan for a technology that optimizes iodine productivity, adding to the one he obtained in Chile. He points out that intellectual property “represents official recognition of an application arising from research, ensures potential economic benefits from its industrial implementation, and contributes to the University’s positioning in research and development.”