Innovators can be a huge asset in helping market their technologies to potential partners, licensees, and investors, as they bring unique knowledge and expertise to any discussion. However, successfully communicating the value of their inventions in a discussion, presentation, or networking event can be challenging for innovators precisely because of their knowledge and expertise. We recommend training inventors to ask themselves the following key questions as they evaluate how their innovation might fit into a particular market:…
A few weeks back, I read Victoria Schramm’s post on Forbes.com called “5 Reasons Why Undergrad Entrepreneurship Courses Aren’t Producing Entrepreneurs.” Given Schramm’s valid points, I’d like to suggest 5 ways to make undergraduate students more entrepreneurial.
A Forbes post from UCLA’s John Villasenor entitled “Intellectual Property Awareness at Universities: Why Ignorance Is Not Bliss” caught my eye. It discussed the importance of teaching the next generation of engineers, scientists, and innovators “what IP is and why it matters.” Having conducted an informal survey of engineering grad students, Villasensor discovered that their understanding of IP was woefully lacking. He rightfully raised the question:…
Innovators can often be a huge asset when you are in discussions with a potential licensee. After all, they bring more knowledge and expertise about the invention to the table than anyone else. They also often are a good source of information about potential applications and target markets. But as we at Fuentek have learned over many years of experience, one should never underestimate the strength of the connection between the innovator and his or her invention–and how that can help or hinder the commercialization process. Let’s take a look at a specific example.
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.
Our latest poll asked the question: What does your tech transfer office (TTO) find to be the most effective way to encourage innovator participation in tech transfer? As you can see by the chart, more than two-fifths of respondents said training was their most important tool. And as regular readers of our blog know, we agree. Training sessions we’ve provided to researchers on the basics of tech transfer as well as open innovation topics have done wonders to help TTOs connect with innovators.
Maintaining effective communications with your Technology Transfer Office’s key stakeholders—inventors, attorneys, administrators, financial personnel, public relations department—sounds easy, but quite often it is considerably more challenging and resource intensive than we expect. Many of us are working with colleagues who have too many demands placed on them with too few resources and too little time.
In most organizations, the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to intellectual property (IP) management. So it is easy to forget that someone outside the office is a key player in commercialization: the innovators who develop the technology you’re licensing out to external organizations.
