The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has won approval to split from the powerhouse tech transfer program that serves the UW system through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Administrators at UWM hope the move will allow the small TTO there to improve its research commercialization success by managing its own intellectual property. The move was approved by the UW System Board of Regents. The UWM program had been run through WARF’s WiSys Technology Foundation Inc., which was launched seven years ago to handle property protection, market analysis, licensing and royalty revenue for all schools in the UW system except UW-Madison. UWM’s move will give it fixed overhead costs, rather than the variable costs associated with its WiSys contract, and shrink the number of law firms it uses to one from the potential dozen or so that WARF hires each year. UWM also will lose the expertise WiSys had available from WARF’s 12 licensing managers. UWM made the decision to go it alone because it wanted the flexibility to use licensing revenue to expand its research and, when possible, the potential to give licensing preference to local partners, university officials said. In addition, UMW will save some significant dollars, including the $30,000 annual fee and 40% of licensing revenue it has been paying to WiSys in exchange for its services. Royalty revenues will now be directed to the UWM Research Foundation, a private entity formed in 2006 with $3 million of initial funding from We Energies, Harley-Davidson and Rockwell Automation. Go to: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=634625

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