The following is a list of the articles that appear in the April 2008 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics monthly newsletter. Subscribe now and get access to this issue as well as access to our online archive of back issues, industry research reports, sample MTAs, legal opinions, sample forms and contracts, government documents and more!

Technology Transfer Tactics,
Vol. 2, No. 4 (pp 49-64) April 2008

• Struggling for budget dollars? Here’s how to make your case for more. How many universities lose millions of dollars each year because technology transfer offices are understaffed but the institutions’ administrators decline to invest additional dollars to ramp up commercialization efforts? Increasingly, TTOs are wrestling with this question even while they prioritize efforts to move intellectual property through the commercialization pipeline. Like the chicken-and-egg conundrum, university administrators often demand that TTOs generate more revenues before they will allocate additional resources. But it’s that very lack of funding that sometimes prevents discoveries in researchers’ labs from getting to market ……… p. 49
• Incentive pay for TTO staff: plusses and minuses. If TTO staff can bring in millions of dollars with extra effort and shrewd deals, why not incentivize those staff with extra cash for good performance? Apparently, it’s easier said than harmoniously achieved ……… p. 49
• Clinic of Innovation uses health care metaphors to win staff over to tech transfer. While many universities outside North America are rapidly moving to increase commercialization activity, there remains a wide gap in many countries between the desire to get innovations to market and the involvement of researchers in the process. To cross that chasm, an entrepreneurial physician in Norway has launched a “clinic” to educate researchers and staff and put market-focused innovation on a faster track ……… p. 50
• Formal ‘expert network’ offers TTO crucial guidance. The TTO leaders at Carnegie Mellon University realized that with the broad range of domains covered by their researchers, it was virtually impossible for their staff to become sufficiently conversant in all of them. This recognition led to the formation of the “Expert Network” ……… p. 51
• Heard in the Hallways. Technology Transfer Tactics sent a team of reporters to the recent AUTM meeting in San Diego. Here is a collection of tips, strategies, and comments heard in conversations with attendees and in both formal and informal gatherings throughout the event ……… p. 52
• SPECIAL REPORT: The promise and pitfalls of using an IP exchange. There is no denying the appeal of an Internet-based matchmaking apparatus for IP. However, most of these efforts have generated mixed results thus far. Nonetheless, many exchanges are working diligently to make the process easier for TTOs — and more effective. Get a detailed look at how IP exchanges may best fit into your marketing strategy, plus see our two-page spread designed to help you comparison shop among the various services ……… p. 58
• ‘CEOs in waiting’ offer entrepreneurial advice for TTO’s startups. University Technologies International (UTI) is employing an unusual strategy to boost its start-up efforts: It has created an “Executive in Residence” program through which experienced entrepreneurs sign on to provide UTI start-ups with the benefit of their experience ……… p. 62