Earlier this month, I was invited to a university tech transfer office (TTO) to discuss ways to get the word out about licensing opportunities. The invitation also was driven by recent changes in the tech transfer industry — specifically, the AUTM® Global Technology Portal (GTP), which allows free posting of tech listings by AUTM members and free searching by all. (Quick definition: A listing is a description of a technology and its possible commercial applications.) With the launch of the GTP, TTOs have another important arrow in their marketing quiver. That’s because this type of passive marketing tool is as essential to TTOs as the active efforts of making phone calls, meeting with prospects at industry conferences, and the like.

I’m interacting with lots of young people these days. Last week I went to Chewning Middle School in Durham, NC, to speak with students about my experiences growing up and working my way into a career in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field. And later this week I’m returning once again to judge the NC Regional FIRST Robotics Competition at the Dorton Arena in Raleigh.

Your Web site is the doorway through which licensees, collaborators, and innovators enter your office, so make sure it enhances the perception of your organization and aligns with your tech transfer goals. This was the message that came through loud and clear from panelists at a session of the recent Association of University Technology Managers® (AUTM®) annual meeting in Anaheim, California.

I’ve recently connected with Springboard Enterprises, an innovative organization that showcases high-quality, women-led companies that are seeking investors. Springboard has a good track record for facilitating spin-out companies (success stories include Constant Contact, ZipCar, Tikatok, and many more) and is providing great opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

Danielle, Julie, and I are settling back into the swing of things now that we’re back from the AUTM® annual meeting in Anaheim. We’ll blog about our panels (which we previewed earlier) in the days to come. But today I wanted to recap some of my favorite moments from the conference. Positive Responses to the Global Technology Portal: I was happy to hear from so many AUTM members and industry representatives about the value of the GTP. It’s clear from the feedback I heard that…

As VP for Strategic Alliances, I was pleased to host a special-interest group (SIG) discussion yesterday morning at the AUTM® annual meeting. It turned out to be a popular session, with more than 40 attendees split about evenly between university and industry tech transfer offices (TTOs). All of them offered great ideas about the various initiatives that Strategic Alliances is pursuing.

Greetings from Anaheim, California, where Fuentek’s Danielle McCulloch, Julie Markoski, and I are attending the annual meeting of the Association of University Technology Managers®. The conference has barely started, and we’re already very busy at this great meeting! AUTM 2012 began yesterday with a joint session with the Licensing Executives Society, which had its Winter Meeting here in the first half of the week. (And, no, it’s not coincidence that the LES and AUTM meetings are aligned like this. This was just one of several efforts this year in AUTM’s Strategic Alliances.) The two associations hosted a pair of sessions together on Wednesday. The first was called…

A few months ago, the IP Marketing Blog discussed the OpenUlster program at the University of Ulster in Ireland and its evaluation license. It caught my attention for its efforts to streamline licensing and help mitigate the risks that potential licensees may feel when contemplating a new technology. Here’s how the blogger described it: ‘To take out an evaluation license, which costs just one Pound, the visitor just clicks on the link to download the documents, fill out two forms and return them both to Ulster. “When the license is countersigned by one of our commercialization team, the firm has exclusivity to evaluate that technology,” says [technology commercialization manager Dr. John] MacRae… At the end of the evaluation period… the evaluation license can be converted into a full commercial license.”’

Updated September 2016 • Whether you are a technology transfer manager seeking licensees for an innovation or an entrepreneur launching a technology-based startup, constructing an effective technology overview and its value proposition is paramount. These two related items play a crucial role in understanding and cultivating market interest in the technology. You use them in gathering market feedback as well as in implementing the marketing strategy. So what are they?

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.