Patent Cooperation of Educational Institutions of Higher Education as an Element of Innovation Activity in the Russian Federation

In the context of global competition and accelerating technological revolution, innovation activity is becoming a key factor of economic growth and competitiveness of states. Higher education plays an important role in this process, acting, among other things, as a centre of knowledge generation and development of new technologies. One of the effective tools contributing to the development of innovation activity of higher education institutions (HEIs) is patent cooperation, including joint efforts to create, protect and commercialise intellectual property. The article analyses the state of patenting of developments by Russian higher education institutions (HEI), commercialisation of their developments, as well as cooperation with scientific and commercial organisations. The aim of the article is to study the impact of patent co-operation of Russian HEIs on innovation activity in the country. The source of statistical data is information from Rospatent and the Expert analytical centre. It is shown that nowadays the main thing is not the number of patents, but the way they are commercialised. In this regard, projects to open technology transfer centres and cooperation between universities and other organisations, which contribute to the emergence of new developments and import substitution of advanced technologies, are becoming more relevant than ever, which is confirmed by the analysis of the above statistical data.