Two weeks ago we launched a poll asking tech transfer offices (TTOs) what tends to be the primary reason for technology marketing efforts not ending in a deal. The early results are starting to show a trend. (You can still take the poll, BTW.) As you can see in the pie chart, few respondents said the problem tended to be caused by internal issues, such as a lack of resources or a time-consuming process. Instead, the majority (77%) attribute it to a lack of market interest or to technology issues. Continue reading →
Last week, a tech transfer professional at a university asked me which patent analysis tools Fuentek uses in our market-based technology assessments. Our conversation then evolved into a discussion about how we use patent mapping as well as the value patent maps provide in evaluating a technology’s commercial potential. I’d like to share with you the perspective that I shared with him. Let me begin by being crystal clear: I firmly believe that analysis tools providing visual maps of the patent landscape play a useful role in… 
The impending shift from a “first to invent” to a “first inventor to file” structure under the recently passed America Invents Act is causing quite a bit of turmoil in the technology transfer industry. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has provided some explanations via FAQs and a letter from director Kappos, yet the rumblings continue. Some in the industry suggest that the appropriate response is to file quick-and-dirty provisionals on virtually everything that comes in the door. I’m sure technology transfer offices (TTOs) hear this advice. But I sincerely hope they do not heed it. 
A recent conversation on one of the AUTM® discussion groups focused on formalizing a technology transfer office’s (TTO’s) triage process. The director initiating the discussion was contemplating using interns for technology triage because his resources are limited and he wanted his licensing project managers to remain focused on getting deals executed. Overall his plan was to start providing feedback on inventions in a standardized format and within a certain timeframe as a way to improve relations and build credibility with faculty. All of this sent me down memory lane!… 
Prioritizing an intellectual property (IP) portfolio is an important, and often huge, task for tech transfer offices (TTOs). In today’s Stories from the Field post, I share details of how an efficient and effective IP portfolio screening helped a university do more than just prioritize its IP for future technology transfer and marketing efforts. A major research university approached Fuentek about screening a group of 30 technologies in the nanotechnology sector… 
As you might have noticed from Fuentek’s news feed or on R&D Magazine‘s Web site, NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center has signed a licensing deal with 4DSP. I for one am pretty excited about this tech transfer success because Fuentek has supported Dryden in this effort. Long-time readers of our blog might remember our post about Dryden’s fiber optic shape sensors technology. But our support of Dryden didn’t begin there. We actually started off with a market-based assessment of the technology’s suite of innovations. 
Our latest poll asked:What is the primary way your TTO determines market interest in technologies available for licensing?