I was recently chatting with folks in the technology transfer office (TTO) at the University of Vermont (UVM). They asked Fuentek to help again this year with evaluating proposals for the SPARK-VT gap funding program. SPARK-VT is designed “to address the challenges of translating novel research into the community” by funding additional research and commercialization. Last year, Fuentek was asked to help evaluate proposals.

Proactive management of intellectual property (IP) is essential for your R&D organization, regardless of whether it’s a university, private company, government lab, hospital, or not-for-profit research organization. Being proactive helps you focus on achieving your goals rather than reactively putting out fires, and it enables more efficient and effective operations. To make your TTO or other IP operation more proactive, consider the following recommendations and guidance.

We at Fuentek are thrilled to share some exciting news for one of our clients. Kolon Industries will receive the Display Component of the Year Award for its Colorless Polyimide (CPI™) film. And later this year, Kolon’s cutting-edge material will be in the pockets of everyone with the Samsung Galaxy X—the only phone in the world with a foldable display.

We at Fuentek are big proponents of actively managing the intellectual property (IP) portfolio as a strategic asset. This is as important for companies as it is for universities, government agencies, and the like. So, Fuentek teamed up with PatSnap to offer a series of free webinars to help companies get the most out of their IP portfolios. Today’s post provides an overview of—and, more importantly, easy links to—that webinar series.

Lots of best practices for technology transfer offices (TTOs) also apply to startups. To leverage that insight, I recently spoke with entrepreneurs in New Hampshire about how to get great feedback from prospective customers when getting a startup off the ground, offering a new product (or service), or breaking into a new market. Similarly, in the tech transfer world, licensing success can be optimized by obtaining robust and comprehensive market feedback through expert interviews. This feedback will inform your strategy for approaching the market as you ramp up to marketing a technology for licensing. For example,…

I’m back, with another post about the AUTM® Eastern Region Meeting, which I first blogged about last week. Today’s topic: The workshop session “Strategies to Offload Patents that Are Doing Nothing for Too Long.” This session, which I came to think of as the “couch-potato patent session,” was moderated by…

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…

Ramping up to successful and cost-effective technology transfer marketing depends not only on a range of proactive research activities but also on thinking through the licensing strategy and a sound marketing plan to help you achieve your goals. The Technology Licensing Strategy A licensing strategy need not be complex or even necessarily written down (although more mature offices may track it as a field in their IP management database). Nevertheless, it is worth taking the time to explicitly think about (1) what your goals are for the technology and (2) what type of licenses and licensees you should seek to meet those goals.

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.

Though it may be tempting to jump immediately into marketing an exciting technology that seems bound for tech transfer success, it’s important to look before you leap to ensure you’re making the best decisions about where to allocate your finite time and resources. Proactive research and planning is critical for developing marketing strategies that are efficient and cost-effective. We’ve blogged about this in our posts about the initial rapid screening and the more in-depth market-based assessment—the two steps for making informed commercialization decisions. The market-based assessment is so essential to technology transfer success that Fuentek has released a free webcast about it.