On July 29, 2015, the Israeli parliament enacted a major amendment to the Law for Encouragement of Research and Development in Industry - 1984 (the “R&D Law”). By way of this amendment, the National Authority for Technological Innovation (the “Authority”) was established, to replace the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Economy (the “OCS”). The purpose of the OCS, and now the Authority, is to encourage innovation and to create new job opportunities in Israel, through the funding of innovative research and development projects.
The Authority shall have greater power and freedom than the OCS in launching creative funding tracks and instituting new guidelines that will govern the transferability and licensing of the resulting technology.
The Authority was formed as of January 1, 2016; new grant tracks and guidelines will be published online from time to time.
It will likely take the Authority several months to launch into full operation. In the interim, the existing OCS regulations shall continue to apply.
At present, the R&D Law only recognizes the “transfer” of technology, while much awaited regulations addressing licensing transactions were drafted but have not been enacted to date.
We expect that licensing regulations similar to those previously proposed by the OCS will be adopted by the Authority and go into force in the course of 2016.
We will follow developments with respect to the implementation of the Amendment and the activity of the Authority and their effect on completed, ongoing and future governmental sponsored R&D projects and transactions involving technologies so funded. |