Innovation management: comparison between two distinct realities - universidade estadual de Santa Cruz (Ilhéus, Bahia) and universidade de La Rochelle (France)[Gestão de inovação: comparação de duas realidades distintas - universidade estadual de Santa Cruz (Ilhéus, Bahia) e universidade de La Rochelle (França)]

This paper aims to present the reality of the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC) (Ilhéus / Brazil) and the Universidade de La Rochelle (ULR) (France) in relation to the activities of innovation management, intellectual property (IP) and technology transfer (TT) performed at each university. The structure of the universities and of their Technology Transfer Offices, the legislation on innovation of each country, patents deposited and cases of technology transfer are presented. The objective is to compare the activities developed in the different realities and to seek, through best practices, a possibility to adapt those practices to the Brazilian case. The data were derived from the revision of the literature especially regarding the legislation on innovation, from the databases of the universities, and from an interview with the director of the ULR value, Prof. Jean- Marc Wallet. It was noticed that the universities have almost the same age and share the same efforts to develop research, teaching and extension activities. The ULR has a structure different from UESC regarding to the management of innovation processes, IP and TT, which allows, by means of legal provisions, greater flexibility in their actions, resulting in more successful and agile processes of technology transfer.