Writing on her comany’s IP Management blog (http://blog.fuentek.com/), Laura Schoppe, president of tech transfer consulting and research firm Fuentek, LLC, says TTOs sometimes forget that individuals outside the office — the inventors — are key players in commercialization. Proactive TTOs provide training for their innovators, Schoppe insists. “At its most basic level, training sessions on how to prepare an invention disclosure can help innovators overcome their trepidation in filing this important piece of paperwork with your TTO,” she writes. “But innovator training can do so much more.” Training innovators on the ins and outs of IP management, Schoppe stresses, helps them understand:

• Their legal responsibilities in protecting IP, which can increase invention disclosures and help innovators appropriately share information in collaborative R&D — an increasingly common situation as organizations implement a more “open innovation” environment.
• What qualifies as an invention, which helps innovators to recognize when they have invented something and file their invention disclosures at the right time.
• The connections between innovation and commercialization, which can help inventors to develop technologies that are aligned with market needs and, therefore, better poised for success.
• What the TTO does with the technology after receiving their disclosures, which sets reasonable expectations for inventors and helps them to appreciate the TTO’s decision-making and patenting process.

“We have found time and again that innovators who understand what the TTO does are better participants in technology transfer activities, which in turn helps the TTO be more effective in executing the IP management strategy,” Schoppe says. For example, when innovators understand that you are evaluating their inventions based on competitive intelligence regarding market interest and then proceeding for business reasons — including budget constraints — they are more likely to cooperate in the later steps of commercialization and less likely to question why a particular invention is not proceeding to patent. “Put simply: An informed inventor is the best commercialization partner you can have,” she adds. “When you invest in your innovators with training, the ROI will be substantial.”

Source: Fuentek Intellectual Property Management Blog

Posted June 23rd, 2010 under Tech Transfer

Write a comment