Colorado University invests $2.5 million in licenses, patents plan

The University of Colorado hasn’t kept pace with peer universities in turning
faculty research and patents into marketable products and services. So it’s
stepping up technology-transfer efforts with an aggressive strategic plan.

By Michael Perrault, Rocky Mountain News
June 19, 2002

University officials are concerned that the gap between CU and other
universities’ technology-transfer successes "is widening at an alarming rate."

CU hired David Allen in February to draw up a program to provide a "road
map" to streamline the product-development process and to increase the
number of inventions from faculty, staff and students.

"It’s not merely an opportunity to make money," Allen said. "Technology
transfer offers many different opportunities: to continue to develop
relationships with companies, to demonstrate the competitiveness of our
research, for economic development in the state."

Ken Porter, who used his doctorate in chemistry and an MBA to further Duke
University’s technology transfer program, also has joined CU’s 8-year-old
Technology Transfer Office. He said CU’s first strategic technology-transfer
plan is about lowering patent, licensing, marketing and other barriers and
packaging and protecting intellectual property.

Allen expects it will take about a year to see a noticeable increase in CU’s
product-development activities.

A beefed up technology-transfer staff, from 11 to 16 by 2003, should help CU
accomplish its goal, as will a commitment to invest more than the $2.5
million the university has tied up in the program. The goal is to break even
within five years.

Key elements of the strategic plan include improving CU’s licensing
practices, establishing more responsive policies for intellectual property and
improving communications.

By developing better ties to Colorado’s business community, CU will
generate needed resources, said Jack Burns, CU’s vice president for
academic affairs and research. About a fourth of funding for CU’s
technology-transfer program comes from royalties and license fees.

CU has a track record of technology-transfer success stories, from patents
and drug discoveries to new companies.

Garret Moddel, for example, a CU electrical engineering professor, founded
Phiar Corp. to develop super-high-speed components for optical
communications.

William Arend, a professor and chief of rheumatology at CU’s Health
Sciences Center, first observed how the drug Kineret could be used to treat
rheumatoid arthritis. Amgen, the No. 1 biotech company, eventually acquired
the drug.

perraultm@RockyMountain News.com or (303)892-2467

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/technology/article/0,1299,DRMN_49_1216507,00.html