PROMOTING UNIVERSITY'S INNOVATION THROUGH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: A MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Innovation is inevitably important to elevate the nation's economic growth. For this reason, Malaysian government is committed to undertake various initiatives to significantly encourage and improve innovation activities towards achieving a high income nation. In conformity with the government agenda, university has always been recognised as a core to provide for new innovative development. It is very important for university to set their target to be considered as a highly creative and innovative university. Although many efforts have been put forward to encourage for promoting innovation, nevertheless there are some aspects which are not fully utilised especially on the role of intellectual property rights towards innovation in the university context. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent that intellectual property rights play in promoting innovation and what challenges face by the university in promoting their innovation through intelletual property rights. For the purpose of the study, interviews were conducted with seven academics researchers who have developed their innovation in terms of viable research products. This study identified that intellectual property rights play significant role in promoting innovation for the university. Nevertheless, it was also found that intellectual property rights provide challenges for university to foster its innovation. Findings of this study can be used as a guidance for academic researchers to strategically plan for a dynamic and successful innovative development in the university. These findings are also valuable for policy makers in the university and government to promote innovative development for Malaysia as a whole.