The patenting activity of universities have gained an increasing attention in the recent decades. Patenting can foster economic development and facilitates to acquire financial resources from commercialization, however this activity still remained low at universities in Hungary. While academics play an essential role in the patenting process, only a few studies investigated the factors affecting their decision. Therefore we put our research focus on scientists in order to get a better understanding of the main influencing factors that can motivate or hinder academics’ patenting intention.

In our study we used Theory of Planned Behavior in order to measure the relationship between the TPB factors and potential perceptual barriers. We determined three factors (patenting impact on scientific activity; commercial potential of patents and researcher’s capability) which can have impact on scientists’ patenting intention, but in our study these factors have not been proven significant. In the TPB model only patenting attitude and social norms had impact on patenting intention. Family members, friends and peers play important role in the encouragement of patenting, while the role of university is not relevant in scientists’ patenting intention.

Keywords: university, patenting, TPB model, barriers, academics