The Licensing Executive Society (USA and Canada) has delivered a letter to President Obama urging his administration to do more to help innovations reach the marketplace. In the letter, LES officials identified three IP-related areas they would like addressed in U.S. government policy: to provide gap funding for critical technology development; to preserve IP policies that promote both innovation and competition; and to support greater access to public and privately developed technology. “Innovation must reach the marketplace, and the path is precarious,” noted LES USA/Canada President Francois Painchaud and Immediate Past President Thomas A. Picone, who co-authored the letter. “To move innovation from mind to marketplace requires complex systems of finance, law, and commerce. We must ensure that those systems promote, rather than hinder, innovation.” LES USA/Canada’s recommendations include:

• Gap Funding, using expanded grant and assistance programs to cross the “Valley of Death,” which would be overseen by a transition boards or qualified mentors.
• Preserving IP Policies, and maintaining “the pro-licensing legal environment that has evolved over the last two decades.” LES also expressed concern over the diversion of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office user fees to other programs even while the PTO suffers extensive backlogs and underfunding. “In 2004, many users of the patent system agreed to substantial fee increases in exchange for a permanent end to fee diversion,” the LES execs wrote. “This permanent provision has not yet been enacted…. We recommend that those funds be retained by the USPTO and devoted to hiring and training additional qualified personnel.”
• Greater Access to Technology using an online community created by the Administration “to publicize technology-specific IP.” LES suggested that the government require as a condition of federal funding that grantees participate in online communities where IP can be searched, and collaborations created.

To read the entire letter, go to: Licensing Executives Society

Posted March 5th, 2009 under Tech Transfer

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