'Garching Innovation' Now 'Max Planck Innovation'

The Max Planck Society in Munich, Germany, announced this week that its technology transfer company, Garching Innovation, has changed its name to "Max-Planck-Innovation -- Connecting Science and Business". Max Planck Innovation advises and supports Max Planck Society scientists in evaluating inventions and filing patent applications. It was founded in 1970 as Garching Instrumente GmbH and had operated under the name Garching Innovation since 1993. "Worldwide, the name of Max Planck enjoys an excellent reputation as an icon of outstanding science," said Jörn Erselius, CEO of Max Planck Innovation. "We want to profit from this high profile, and under the new name we will strengthen our marketing activities not only within Germany and Europe, but also into the US and Asia." Another goal of Max Planck Innovation, he said, is to show more presence within the Max Planck Society. "Time and again we experience that scientists of the Max Planck Society are not aware of the scope of services we offer. We support scientists from the evaluation to the marketing of their invention as well as with founding a startup, if they want to commercialize a new technology on their own," Erselius said. During the last 15 years, Max Planck Innovation has coached and consulted 46 spinoffs. Currently, it oversees more than 1000 inventions and has interests in 17 companies. Each year, another 120 to 140 projects are added. The total proceeds for inventors, the Max Planck Institutes and the Max Planck Society currently amounts to about 200 million euro (approximately $254.5 million).