Effective Technology Transfer Through Active Licensing
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from the transfer of their technology to the private sector. Such expectations account for the explosive growth of university technology transfer programs. We would define the mission of technology transfer as (1) to bring university inventions into public use with maximum integrity, effectiveness, and speed, and (2) to maximize the financial return to the university and the inventor. This article will describe "active licensing," an approach to technology transfer that we hâve found to be more effective and that we feel is more rational than the paradigms in use at most institutions.
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Time and Cost • Figure 1. Technology value-development curve. "Value" refers to the sum that would be paid for the technology by a licensee.
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The Technology Value-Development Curve Figure 1 présents the commercial value of technology as a function of incrémental time and cost investment in development of the technology. The Research Plateau is that portion of the curve between disclosure of the technology and the point where the technology can be perceived and believed as a likely product by a prospective licensee. Much good, académie science can occur during this period, and the académie "value" of the work may increase considerably. But, from the perspective of the prospective licensee, technology at any point along this plateau is a research project. Industry is very poor at assigning incrémental value to différent stages of a research project. Such projects typically are evaluated by and, if licensed, budgeted within the licensee's R&D department. Some Key Value-adding Information, however, can transform the perception of a technology from that of a research project to that of a product in development or a product candidate. The technology becomes more crédible, particularly to the marketing department of the prospective licensee. Sales forecasts and revenue projections can be calculated. A product champion may arise within one of the business units. The décision to license the technology becomes a commercial décision, inf luenced, but not wholly controlled, by R&D. Corporate funds may be allocated for the project. And the price of the license goes way up—the idéal time to license. Key value-adding information can include toxicology data on a potential pharmaceutical, démonstration of a manufacturable, working prototype of an engineering design or the results of beta tests on software. Most of this information can be obtained quite inexpensively ($3 to $30,000). Unfortunately, almost ail universityoriginated technology is licensed during the research plateau, too early and for too little. Witness the fact that many startup companies hâve rapidly enhanced their valuation merely by generating and packaging a little key information on technology licensed from academia. Effective technology transfer requires identifying t
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