Proposta de um fluxo para gestão do portfólio de pedidos de patente da UFAM.

Abstract

This study examines the discontinuation of patent applications as a recurring challenge in intellectual property management at public higher education institutions, focusing on the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM). In many Innovation and Technology Transfer Offices (NITs), asset maintenance is handled reactively, driven by administrative deadlines and annuity costs, without periodic evaluation routines based on technical, market, and strategic criteria. In this context, the study aimed to propose an institutional workflow for managing UFAM’s patent application portfolio, capable of supporting more consistent decisions to “maintain,” “conditionally maintain,” or “discontinue” assets, ensuring transparency, traceability, and governance. The research adopted an applied approach, combining a literature review on portfolio management and patent abandonment, documentary analysis, a comparative review of regulations in Brazilian institutions, and mapping of UFAM’s current process. Based on this diagnosis, an improved workflow was modeled in BPMN, integrating stages of screening, evaluation, and institutional deliberation. As a technical product, a Decision Support Form was developed to standardize the collection of essential information, such as technology maturity, degree of innovation, potential demand, scalability, and transfer potential. The form seeks to reduce information asymmetries and promote greater objectivity in the analysis, preserving the inventor’s role as a qualified source without assigning them final responsibility for the decision. The results indicate that, nationally, the institutionalization of specific rules and instruments for discontinuation is heterogeneous, with frequent gaps regarding the explicit definition of criteria, the periodicity of reassessment, and the existence of formal collegiate decision-making bodies. In UFAM’s case, the study highlights the need to distinguish administrative situations in the application cycle from strategic decisions about portfolio retention, avoiding both maintenance by inertia and discontinuation without sufficient justification. It is concluded that adopting a structured workflow, combined with a standardized instrument and a formal decision-making body, tends to improve the management of patent portfolios in public universities by rationalizing costs, strengthening the legitimacy of decisions, and increasing the likelihood that retained assets will have real transfer and impact potential.