The following is a list of the articles that appear in the July 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. 7 (pp 97-112) July 2008

• Incentives pose tricky challenges but may bring TTOs big rewards. Would the number and value of deals completed by tech transfer offices increase if their staffs received economic incentives or success fees tied to every license agreement completed? ……… p. 97
• Staff turnover won’t disappear, but savvy recruitment and retention strategies can help. “Turnover is inevitable in this business,” said Todd Sherer, PhD, associate vice president and director of the Office of Technology Transfer at Atlanta’s Emory University, during a session at the AUTM annual meeting. But a combination of savvy recruitment and retention strategies can help reduce this perennial TTO problem ……… p. 97
• University spins out a for-profit TTO to jump-start commercialization activity. Noetic Technologies, Inc., of Hattiesburg, MS, provides the University of Southern Mississippi with all the services an institution would expect from its TTO — and more. But please don’t call it a tech transfer “office” ……… p. 98
• UT Dallas opens new office, shifts focus from ‘gatekeeper’ to ‘facilitator.’ The U of Texas at Dallas is reinventing its approach to technology transfer by establishing an office to help researchers create companies and move their inventions from the lab to the marketplace. The Office of Technology Commercialization is designed to shift the university’s role from that of IP gatekeeper to commercialization facilitator ……… p. 99
• Commercializing knowledge-based IP a unique challenge. As Noetic Technologies has branched out from commercializing technology to knowledge-based IP like courseware and software, its key people have learned that these can sometimes be ‘different animals’ ……… p. 106
• International Spotlight: Singapore. The island nation is buzzing with tech transfer activity ……… p. 107
• Tap into alumni networks for funding, licensing opportunities. Formal alumni support networks can facilitate innovator-investor ties and generate needed cash for early-stage research. But some TTOs have found they require more maintenance than they’re worth, while others prefer a looser, less-formal approach to keeping in touch with alums ……… p. 109
• Focusing too much on profit may hold peril for TTOs. Whether TTOs should be viewed as profit or cost centers is a growing source of tension in the tech transfer community. Michael Dilling, PhD, senior licensing associate in the Baylor Licensing Group at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, echoes many in the industry when he says TTOs “should be as effective as we possibly can in getting technology with commercial potential out into the market. If we’re successful in getting those licenses done and getting that technology commercialized — and if we do a good job negotiating deals on behalf of our institutions — then the money will follow” ……… p. 111