Tech transfer offices (TTOs) bridge the divide between the market and innovators at universities and non-profit organizations.  TTOs help to promote the adoption of technology by matching technologists and scientists with industry that can bring that technology to market.  TTOs can also generate revenue to support development and to demonstrate its value.

Yet, TTOs face numerous challenges.  Curating a marketable patent portfolio on a limited budget is difficult, especially where technology in development often takes years to come to market.  Additionally, some TTOs receive inadequate buy-in from their universities and faculty, complicating the invention harvesting and portfolio curation processes.  TTOs, in the course of monetizing, must also bear in mind partnerships and other business relationships their parent organizations have or may wish to pursue.

This program will discuss the roles TTOs can and should play in research organizations, best practices, key trends, and upcoming challenges.

Major topics

Invention harvesting

Creating a virtuous cycle – incentivizing your innovators to disclose inventions and to participate in the harvesting process

Best practices – optimizing your invention harvesting process

Useful metrics – statistics that may be useful in understanding ways in which your process is succeeding and ways in which it could improve

Portfolio curation

Marketable portfolio composition – understanding circumstances under which foreign equivalents and continuations can drive portfolio value

Shepherding limited resources – spotting, as early as possible, the technologies in which you should invest heavily

Monetization

Potential transaction partners – identifying and approaching prospective partners

Patents-plus – selling know-how and ongoing partnerships as part of a larger deal

Presentation to market – generating marketing materials, including evidence of use or claim charts

Valuation – pricing your assets and/or articulating the business objectives you wish to achieve in an IP transaction

Moderator:

Robert J.L. Moore, Patent Attorney, Caldwell IP

Speakers:

Ian McClure, Executive Director, Office of Technology Commercialization at University of Kentucky

Roger Ross, CEO and Founder, Commonwealth Licensing Services LLC

Michael Gulliford, Managing Principal, Soryn IP Group, LLC