There’s a trend that seems to be on the rise around the world, and it’s worth thinking about where you live. It has to do with the centralizing or consolidating of technology transfer functions across universities. We’ve explored the topic of TTO centralization on this blog before, and we have a free white paper with best practices on centralizing/consolidating TTOs. But the impressive thing about what’s happening lately is the extent to which the coordination is happening across institutions.
Although it’s hard to put down the latest summer best-seller, technology transfer professionals might consider doing so in favor of these recent items. A few of these might generate some strong reactions — I hope so, anyway! Join the discussion by adding a comment below.
There’s a big difference between how research organizations and private corporations communicate and think about technology transfer. Research organizations tend to focus on how to manage and share their intellectual property (IP). Technologies are often embryonic, development moves at a deliberate pace, and the focus isn’t so much on developing a product as on developing the next innovation. For industry, IP has to serve a purpose and advance the bottom line, whether it’s creating new revenue sources, improving net profits, or moving products quickly into the marketplace. Research organizations that act proactively can…
On May 22nd, Startup Act 2.0 was introduced. This is a revised version of legislation proposed last December that contained questionable provisions to allow university professors to choose their own agents to help transfer their technology rather than be tied to their home university’s technology transfer office (TTO)—the so-called free agency provision. I dug into the new legislation, comparing it to the original wording, to figure out exactly what’s changed (besides the fact that the accelerated commercialization of research provisions are now part of Section 8 rather than 7). Here’s what I figured out.
Three items in the news during the past few days have caught my attention, and I think you should give them yours. They are a report released June 14th by the National Research Council of the National Academies (NRC), a June 19th Congressional hearing on creative approaches to the Bayh-Dole Act, and a report issued June 20th measuring the economic impact of inventions developed at U.S. universities and nonprofit organizations. (Whew, that’s a busy week!)
We recently received a question through our Contact Us page from a tech transfer professional in Scandinavia looking to make LinkedIn an active part of his TTO’s activities. The inquiry concerned whether TTOs are posting technologies on LinkedIn, not merely pointing to the TTO’s own website. I figured my answer might be useful to our blog readers, so I’m sharing it here today.
This month’s list of articles worth reading centers around the topic of entrepreneurship. In some cases, these are technology transfer offices (TTOs) fostering entrepreneurs. In some cases, TTOs are tapping into the expertise of entrepreneurs. And in some cases, the TTOs are being pretty entrepreneurial themselves! So let’s see what we’ve got.
As I get ready for Fuentek’s new webinar on implementing open innovation best practices in technology transfer offices (TTOs), I am reminded of conversations I’ve had with a wide range of tech transfer professionals over the years. What has struck me time and again in these discussions is the broad applicability of open innovation concepts to tech transfer and the value of implementing these concepts in a proactive manner. Despite the fact that government, university, and corporate TTOs vary in their missions, perspectives on innovation, goals/metrics, and economic and entrepreneurial climates, they all have the potential to benefit from implementing sound principles related to open innovation.
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 urgency is growing surrounding a very important technology transfer issue: the free agency concept. This is the idea put forth by The Kauffman Foundation that university faculty should be able to shop their discoveries to any third party for licensing. A Quick Recap The free agency concept first gained attention in January 2010, when Harvard Business Review called it a breakthrough idea. I blogged at the time that it is, in fact, a naive idea.
