CU restructures intellectual property and technology-transfer management

By Susan Lang

Cornell is changing the way in which it handles its intellectual property (IP) and transfers its many new technologies to the public. These changes are designed to foster university-industry research collaborations, promote innovation and encourage entrepreneurship on campus.

Richardson

Cahoon

IP management, licensing and economic development now will be combined in a single office, the Cornell Center for Technology, Enterprise and Commercialization (CCTEC); also referred to as the Cornell Center for Technology or "C-TECH."

CCTEC is a regular operating unit of the university and reports to Vice Provost for Research Robert Richardson. "With the recommendations of the Land Grant Mission Review report and an average of nearly one new invention developed at Cornell every business day, the university's emphasis on IP/technology-transfer function has increased, as has the need to enhance and integrate that operation," said Richardson. "CCTEC is better positioned to commercialize the university's inventions and coordinate resources to increase corporate research collaboration and foster economic development." The new organization, he said, makes it much easier for researchers and their colleges to participate in economic development and entrepreneurship and access Cornell's IP management, licensing and technology-transfer resources.

CCTEC merges and coordinates the Intellectual Property Management and Licensing office in Ithaca (the central office for technology transfer, which supersedes the former Office of Patents and Technology Marketing) and its satellite at Weill Cornell Medical College (called the Technology Development Office); the Office of Economic Development; and the Cornell Research Foundation Inc.(which has no staff but appears on legal documents in name only).

Through its office of Intellectual Property Management and Licensing, the new center manages all aspects of Cornell's invention disclosures, patents, trademarks, copyrights and licenses. Technology managers at the center orchestrate the technology-transfer process, which includes primary responsibility for managing confidentiality agreements and outgoing material transfer agreements, negotiating option and license agreements and assisting other Cornell groups with consulting arrangements and corporate visits to campus.

"The new structure is designed to build strategic relationships among colleges, centers and our IP/technology-transfer operation," said Richard Cahoon, acting executive director of CCTEC. "In addition to their traditional technology marketing and licensing roles, senior technology managers at the center will coordinate the development of a strategic relationship between CCTEC, colleges and other centers. They also will work closely with Cornell campus groups in related areas, such as industrial outreach. The center offers companies easier, one-portal access to Cornell's proprietary technology and IP and is also much more conducive to fostering university-industry research collaborations, due to closer links with the Office of Sponsored Programs. We have IP/technology-transfer professionals with technical and business expertise in human and animal health, the physical sciences and the life sciences who serve as direct links to Cornell's colleges and research centers." They not only market and license inventions developed at Cornell but also encourage companies to support Cornell's research laboratories and assist researchers and administrators in the technology-based venture creation process, he added.

"The reorganization became imperative due to the rapid increase in invention disclosures, licenses, start-ups and the growing awareness of the importance of IP/technology transfer in university-industrial collaborations and to the university and its mission," said Cahoon. "As IP management and technology transfer has intensified, the public expectation of universities to serve as engines of economic development has grown. The rise in small-business development in the United States is due, in part, to university spin-off companies, particularly those based on high technology. With the Office of Economic Development integrated into the overall process of technology commercialization, Cornell is now in a much better position to foster local and regional economic development."