British Technology Group

UK corporation exploiting inventions derived from public or private sources, usually jointly with industrial firms. It was set up in 1967 under the Development of Inventions Acts 1948–65 and known as the National Research Development Council until 1981. BTG holds more than 8,000 patents and was responsible for marketing the hovercraft, magnetic resonance imaging, and cephalosporin antibiotics. In 1990 it returned royalties worth £13 million to British research bodies.