Work

Innovation by Design: Strategic Public Procurement and the Normative Case for Public Ownership of IPRs in Open Data Policy

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Innovation is widely recognised as a fundamental driver of economic development. As defined by the OECD Oslo Manual, innovation encompasses both an activity and its outcome, referring to new or significantly improved products, processes, or combinations thereof, implemented or made available to users. Innovation activities include the developmental, financial, and commercial efforts that lead to these outcomes. Within this broader conceptual framework, public procurement and open data policies have gained recognition as key instruments for fostering innovation in the European Union. The Public Procurement Directive urges Member States to make strategic use of public contracts to spur innovation, while the Open Data Directive highlights the role of accessible data in enabling new services and digital transformation. This article examines how these two legal regimes intersect and argues that public ownership of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in data-rich procurement outputs is essential for aligning procurement practices with the EU’s innovation and openness goals.

Source: JOURNAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA LAW

DOI: 10.22364/jull.19.07

Authors: Gerli Helene Gritsenko, Aleksei Kelli

Institution: University of Tartu

Language: English

Topic: Public Procurement and Policy

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Eesti Teadusagentuur