Benefits of Technology Transfer

U.S. patent law is addressed in the U.S. Constitution: Article I, Section 8. [link]. In addition, one remembers that the Bayh-Dole Act (1980) gives the freedom to inventors, funded by government research contracts or grants, to exploit their inventions. [link]
 
More recently the federal government has clearly indicated its desire to see lab-to-market commercialization of technologies.

See, in particular:

• The American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA) signed into law 1/6/2017. [link]
• The DOE Research and Innovation Act (RIA) passed by the House and received in the Senate 1/30/2017. [link]
• The DOE Technology Transfer Execution Plan 2016-2018 (TTEP). [link]

 
Given the current assault on science research funding, one imagines that these institutions would welcome the ability to create a supplementary income stream to their general fund, as well as rewarding their departments and inventors. Being a close admirer of the SLAC Linear Accelerator Center, a DOE federal lab, I looked in particular at the DOE’s Technology Transfer Execution Plan listed above. I focus on their two outlined objectives:

1. “Increase the commercial impact of DOE investments through the transition of national  laboratory-developed technologies into the private sector.”
2. “Increase the commercial impact of DOE investments through private sector utilization of national laboratory facilities and expertise.”

 
It is important, in my view that one recognizes that, in addition to the potential financial returns to a general fund, a department lab and the inventor(s), one should also consider the following benefits, particularly given some labs’ ethos to freely share their intellectual capital:

• Increases US competitiveness
• Creates jobs
• Makes industry and funding agencies aware of what we do
• Helps attract talents
• Helps research funding
• Brings the technology to industry
• Showcases the science and technology

Continued in the next article at www.pierreschwob.com/blog/archives/12-2016

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