Fuentek’s Tech Transfer Blog
Fuentek’s technology transfer experts share their insights
about IP management, technology marketing, TTO operations,
strategic planning, best practices, and more.
about IP management, technology marketing, TTO operations,
strategic planning, best practices, and more.
As we have been getting ready for the “Stop Reacting, Start Proacting” webinar, we’ve been recalling some of our experiences over the years conducting market-based technology assessments. These experiences have taught us the importance of carefully considering the market’s view of a technology before launching into marketing. For example, Fuentek’s rapid screening of a polishing technique for optics showed potential for use in mirrors, lenses, and molds for optical components. Based on the screening, we ranked the technology’s commercialization potential as medium-high, and the client agreed it was worth moving on to the next step: a market-based technology assessment.
We’ve blogged often about the importance of digital channels in your communications strategy. Now, we have released an exciting new white paper that offers all of our best practices in one read. I wrote “Digital Media Guidelines for Tech Transfer Offices” with Fuentek founder and president Laura Schoppe as an all-inclusive primer about planning and executing a comprehensive digital media program for TTOs.
There is so much preparation that goes into technology transfer marketing, and one of the most important steps is choosing the right mechanisms for the message you’ve crafted for your technology. Fuentek typically chooses among a range of mechanisms, depending on our client’s technology, the target prospects, and the expected return on investment (the O in AMMO). In our new webcast, we lay out some tips and guidance about choosing mechanisms for your technology marketing efforts.
We’re seeing some interesting results for our poll regarding how frequently tech transfer offices (TTOs) attend industry conferences and events to market their technologies or partnership opportunities. As you can see in the chart, nearly three-quarters of all respondents use trade shows minimally or not at all. These responses are not surprising. Attending industry conferences and trade shows is an expensive way to do tech transfer marketing, regardless of whether you have a booth in the exhibit hall. Even if they are local events,…
This afternoon at 2pm Eastern, TrendPOV will be airing an interview I recently did with Dr. Amy Vanderbilt. Some of you might remember that TrendPOV gave Fuentek a Spotlight Award a year and a half ago. (It’s amazing what a little NPR coverage will generate!) As part of the spotlight interview, Amy and I talked about how Fuentek is structured as a virtual business. TrendPOV is revisiting some of their previous award winners, so Amy and I talked again. Some of the topics we covered in this new interview were:…
If you read the Fuentek blog regularly, you’re probably familiar with the technology screening webinar we launched earlier this year. Well, today we announced a new webinar that provides training on what comes next for technologies that show potential for commercialization success. The “Stop Reacting, Start Proacting: Planning for Strategic Technology Marketing” webinar helps you not only be more proactive and efficient in selecting the technologies you market but also develop the right marketing plan for each one. Planning for technology marketing is important. Once you’ve figured out whether an innovation has what it takes to make further investment in commercializing it worthwhile, then you need to…
I always enjoy getting to talk with inventors about their innovations, don’t you? True, I don’t get to talk to every innovator for the technologies I see in my work with Fuentek, since we save our inventor interviews for those techs that pass our preliminary screening. But I do get to interview the innovator as we begin planning for technology marketing. With thoughtful preparation and execution, these interviews provide critical insights to guide the tech transfer effort—not to mention help build a solid relationship with innovators.
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.
When you conduct online market research for technology screenings or market-based technology assessments, keywords are critical to finding relevant information about the technology’s potential markets, competitors, and licensees. Fuentek has developed a free webcast to help you understand some of our keywords best practices—tips that you can use to improve your online market research.
Yesterday I went to Washington with about two dozen other North Carolina small businesses to meet with several of our country’s legislative and executive leaders. It was a great opportunity—one that I hope will eventually lead to genuine action that supports the transition of innovations developed with federal funding into commercial applications. And I have a few ideas about how to do that.
