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UNal holds first in patents in Colombia.

Professor Pablo Abril of the UNal-Bogotá Extension Directorate.

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is the faculty which has received most patents.

Currently UNal research groups have 29 pending requirements.

The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce receives more than 2,000 patent requests a year.

Three of every ten inventions requested in Colombia come from UNal. For this reason the institution holds first place in the ranking that measures the amount of inventions contributed by Colombian educational institutions. 

According to UNal-Bogotá Director of Extension Professor Pablo Abril, they have been working intensively for the last three years for the university inventions to have an impact on society. 

“To make this knowledge produce development we have worked on patents as a concrete solution to an existing issue in society and that the knowledge produced by UNal be recognized at the Nacional scope. Being in first place in this ranking is a reflection that the process carried out by the institution produces greater knowledge for society. It is to package knowledge into a useful product and transform it into a service for Colombians” he said. 

According to Abril, in Colombian UNal has 42 intellectual property right or patents protected by the SIC. Of these, 8 have an international impact, 11 are already being used by the public and 32 are in process of seeking protection which, “we area advancing in the mechanisms to make this transference possible,” he added. 

The ranking 

Between January 2015 and June 2016, SIC accepted 40 patents to 12 universities in Colombia, including 11 to UNal. 

UNal is followed by the Universidad Javeriana, the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, the Universidad de Antioquia and the Universidad del Valle, each one with four inventions. 

Among the list of patents granted to UNal, four were for mechanical engineering, three for chemical engineering, two for electric engineering, one for biotechnology and one for pharmaceutical industry. 

Furthermore according to the ranking UNal is the institutional with more pending requests, 29 in total followed by the Universidad Eafit (19); Universidad de Antioquia (16) and the Universidad de Los Andes (10). 

According to SIC, the amount of researchers with doctoral formation is one of the factors which most influence the institution to have such a privileged place. 48% of the professionals with doctoral degrees are from UNal. 

According to the SIC, however there is still much to do in Colombia as only 1% of the Colombian GDP is destined to this goal. 

The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce of Colombia receives on average, 2,200 patent requests a year. In 2015, 3.7% of the total requests came from universities.