Technology management in Brazilian public universities has gained increasing importance within the Brazilian innovation system. The Innovation Act of 2004 provides specific legal guidance on intellectual property, technical cooperation and technology transfer, favoring the intensification of these processes. The objective of this work was to understand the institutional policies and challenges for technology transfer in the public universities, as well as to identify forces and obstacles related to technology commercialization. The kind of analyses was qualitative, and for the empirical part of the work, the strategy of case studies was used in institutions such as: USP, Unesp, Unicamp, Unifesp e UFSCar. Using technology transfer contracts from each one of them, this article reveals key aspects, forces and obstacles within that practice. An increase in intellectual property and technology commercialization activities was noted in all cases, but this is still recent.
Technology management; Public universities; Intellectual property
