A contabilidade pública como elemento estratégico na gestão dos ativos de propriedade intelectual nas instituições científicas e tecnológicas públicas: um estudo nos Institutos Federais da região nordeste

Abstract

Inserted in the scenario of globalization and high competitiveness, accounting is essential to support decision-making by managers in negotiating and transferring an organization's intellectual property (IP) assets. One of the challenges faced by Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institutions (ICTs) is the recognition of internally developed IP assets in their Financial Statements (DFs), as it is complex and there are difficulties in understanding how to measure. In addition, the innovation policies of these institutions are incipient in terms of accounting aspects, which can impact asset trading. However, accounting has methodologies and plays an important role in measuring, recording and disclosing, becoming a strategic element for the control and decision-making of managers. In this sense, this research had as a general objective to verify how public accounting can contribute to mitigate the problems of measuring, recording, disclosing and managing IP assets internally generated in the Financial Statements (DCs) of the Federal Institutes (IFs) in Northeastern Brazil. To achieve the proposed objective, a descriptive and explanatory research was carried out, through multiple case studies. Regarding the means of investigation, the research falls under the category of exploratory, survey and documentary research, using qualitative procedures. The following periods were used for data collection: electronic questionnaire (10/02/20 to 10/09/20); mapping of IP assets at INPI (01/01/99 to 06/05/20) and management reports (2018). The results showed that, despite the fact that most Technological Innovation Centers (NITs) of FIs in the Northeast have policies of innovation that help the intellectual protection of inventions, the registration of granted patents and the Transfer of Technology (TT) are still incipient, which can also be explained due to the absence of structured and guiding procedures within the scope of the innovation. Even though there are Brazilian accounting standards (NBCs), such as NBC TG 04 (R4) - private sector and NBC TSP 08 - public sector, the process of measuring, recording and disclosing IP assets, the disclosure of these assets in the DFs does not it's been happening as the NBCs demand it. However, it was also observed that there was difficulty in applying these standards, lack of trained professionals to work in valuation and the lack of auxiliary records aimed at accumulating expenses with these assets. From the moment the patent meets the development stage criteria contained in the MCASP, it can already be evidenced in the DCs, regardless of being deposited or granted, in accordance with the accounting principles of opportunity and competence, currently implicit in the NBCs. Finally, through the accounting flow of expenses associated with internally generated IP assets that must be followed by the ICTs, it is concluded that there must be joint work between two departments (NIT and accounting sector of the ICTs), since the role of measuring the monetary value of assets is accountable based on information received by the NIT. Keywords: Intangible Assets. Accounting. Innovation Policy. Intellectual Property.