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.
I was chatting with a Fuentek colleague last week who had recently run some numbers related to the technology screening work we have been doing for a client. Two facts came up that I wanted to share. The first related to saved patenting costs. We have screened lots of invention disclosures for this client, and over time we’ve rated a total of 134 techs as having low or medium-low commercial potential, recommending that the client not patent them. Cost savings: $3.355 million (assuming $25K/patent). Great news, though not surprising when you do the math on the value of technology screenings. My colleague also showed me the graph below, which charts…
We have found that industry conferences and trade shows can be a great way to connect with potential partners and licensees. Not only are they a captive audience, but often they’ve chosen to come to the event because they are interested in talking about collaboration. Having a booth or other display is one way to create opportunities for those conversations. If you choose to go that route, then the type of display or booth you bring should match your goals and the type of event. For example,…
Online listings are a great way to market technologies–whether you are actively seeking licensees, or passively marketing the technology to potential partners. Fuentek has developed a proven strategy for marketing technologies online, and in a new webcast we share some great insights about how (and why) to take advantage of online tech marketing. We’ll show you what an effective technology marketing Web page looks like, with info about the must-have elements to include and a real-world example for further insight.
Patents have been getting some pretty bad press lately. Between stories about patent trolls in The Economist and on NPR’s This American Life and the patent wars raging between Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC, Samsung, etc., tech transfer professionals are probably finding their cocktail party conversations getting a bit more interesting… and not in a good way. As the public hears more, some question why we have patents at all. They think that if patents are causing this much trouble, they must be bad. This misconception is a problem that technology transfer offices (TTOs) can and should proactively work to overcome.
A few weeks ago I blogged on the results our poll on the most effective way to encourage innovators to participate in tech transfer. Since then, the conversation has continued on LinkedIn® via the Technology Transfer Valorisation group. Some great ideas were shared in that group. Since some readers of our blog might not be members of that group, I’d like to share them here.
Attention, AUTM® members! You have a chance to have a prime spot for networking with organizations from every major technology-oriented industry, including medical technologies. That spot: The AUTM booth at AdvaMed 2011 and LES 2011 this fall.
If your technology transfer office (TTO) has a large tech portfolio, you certainly don’t have time to actively market every innovation. Even if your portfolio is on the smaller side, doing so is probably not the most efficient use of your time and resources. Let’s face it, some technologies have greater market potential than others. That’s why Fuentek finds our technology screening process to be critical to efficiently weeding out technologies that are not ready for licensing, helping you get to the best—fast.
Managing intellectual property (IP) is often handled best with a phased approach. Fuentek recommends a strategy that is both proactive and strategic to identify the valuable technologies in your portfolio and then determine the best way to market them. This is captured in our webinar, A Step-by-Step Process for Technology Screenings: Technology Triage for TTO Professionals and Interns. When we originally presented this webinar back in May, we tweeted about some key ideas that were presented about narrowing down your technology portfolio to get to the most likely innovations for deals. The full webinar is available for download if you missed it, or you can get a preview by registering for our free webcast.
Following on the heels of last week’s post about the hottest tech transfer topics on our blog this past year, I wanted to point out a few interesting articles and blogs that have caught Fuentek’s attention in recent months that are definitely worth a read.
When giving prospects expert information about a technology available for licensing, there’s nothing like getting the facts straight from the horse’s mouth. Or, in our case, the inventor’s mouth! For some of Fuentek’s efforts to secure licensees or partners for client technologies, the inventor has played a key role. Inventors add a perspective that few others can bring to the table, and they can lend extremely important credibility to your marketing message. One great way to use inventors effectively in technology marketing is to have them record podcasts about their technologies.
