Romaniaâs inventors sweep clean the medals off the tables at international competitions. Yet, few of their ideas materialize and turn into profitable business opportunities. Only 15% of their ideas are actually licensed and develop into actual devices.
Ion Carabas is a rare breed among Romanian inventors: he built a paint spraying machine which he markets now in Spain. His comparative advantage is not only the better model he made, but also the better price: 9,000 euros for a Romanian made machine, compared with 17,000 euros for a Spain or Belgium made one.
Carabas estimates that he will build 80 machines this year, all for the foreign market. Two Romanian clients, who already have one of his machines each would like to buy more "but I have not enough production capacity," said Carabas, "so I will rent them my own machines."
He plans a 200,000 euros investment in a new production facility and says his success was also possible because his is a niche market. "There are some 500 such machines in Spain, and some 1,500 machines in France," Carabas said.
Inventions validated scientifically may not be arrived at in the absence of serious scientific research, explains Margareta Oproiu, an adviser on intellectual property rights.
One may have a brilliant idea while tying up his shoe lace, but only if years of work and study of that problem stay behind that one person, adds Oproiu.
Romaniaâs National Office for Inventions and Trade Marks (OSIM) receives some 1,500 each year, but only 15% of them are validated by licensing.
Some 65% of licenses come from individuals, 20% from companies and the rest from academic institutions; their total number stays at a third of the number of licenses granted during the communist regime. The reason for the larger number of licenses during communism was twofold: universities had a "compulsory" quo
