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What Is Technology Transfer?In the academic sector, the process of commercialization—or bringing technologies to the marketplace—is known as “technology transfer.” Technology transfer is now part of the government mandate for institutions receiving federal funding. By and large, technology transfer is accomplished through licensing intellectual property (IP) to companies that have the resources and desire to develop and produce the technology for specific applications. In return, universities receive payments (in the form of cash fees and/or equity and/or royalties on earned revenues) for the products or services that were licensed. The income to the university is distributed according to each university’s policy, but includes compensation to inventors and mechanisms for channeling income back into the research programs of the university. The Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) defines Technology Transfer as “the handing off of intellectual property rights from the university to the for-profit sector for purposes of commercialization.” While technology transfer has been commonplace in the industrial and business sectors for a long time, the notion of selling intellectual property for commercialization purposes has really only become a university phenomenon in the last 20 years, or so. Although the transfer of ideas and technologies from universities to the private sector has occurred to some degree for many years, it became part of mandated practice with the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980. This Act is named after its sponsors, United States Senators Birch Bayh (D-Ind) and Robert Dole (R-Kan). Prior to 1980, any invention created through the use of federal funds was owned by the government—and each government-granting agency had its own policies regarding the process of technology transfer. Thus, most federally funded discoveries sat aging in the federal archives and were never given the opportunity to make it to the marketplace. The Bayh-Dole Act gave non-profit institutions and small businesses the right to elect title (i.e., ownership rights) to their inventions that had been sponsored by federal funds, so long as these institutions agreed to pursue the development of the technologies. The income generated through licensing of technologies provides the incentive for universities to carry out technology transfer. Universities have certain responsibilities incumbent under Bayh-Dole, such as timely reporting of inventions and sharing income with inventors. At the same time, the government also has certain rights including: a non-exclusive, irrevocable, “paid-up” license to the invention and the right to license the invention to third parties under extenuating exceptional circumstances, such as unmet health needs (“march-in rights”). To keep up with the extensive requirements, most universities now have established separate offices of technology transfer. It is the function of the offices of technology transfer to receive invention disclosures from scientists and technologists, to evaluate them for merit as well as the type of protection that is most appropriate, to see that the proper filings (e.g. patents) or registrations (e.g. copyrights) are carried out, to market the inventions to potential commercial partners through licensing efforts, and to monitor the patent filings and the license agreements. In addition, offices of technology transfer are often responsible for other kinds of agreements.
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