The difficulty in financing hardware development in high tech sectors is a tragically accepted reality today.  I wrote the linked-to article with my colleague Jason Eichenholz for SPIE Professional Magazine about how new network-enabled tools including crowd-sourcing, cloud-computing, and open innovation are opening up new pathways to funding and executing on disruptive technology development.

Enjoy!

Over 30 years ago the Bayh-Dole Act gave US universities (as well as small businesses & non-profits) the ability to control intellectual property (IP) that results from federal government funded research.  The hope was that with a stake to claim, universities would be more effective in moving technology from the lab to the market than The Fed; and in so doing, impact our society faster.  The act has, indeed, accomplished what it set out to, but as academic institutes, many universities put very little effort or resources into the proactive licensing of their IP.  Generally, Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) run at near zero-net profit and more importantly have huge portfolios of technology sitting around gathering dust.

Many of these patents offer nothing lucrative and deserve to collect dust.  The patents that sell usually sell themselves, in a sense, leaving the TT world with a hurry up and wait culture.  Two questions present themselves to me now.  First, how can someone go about marketing IP so as to generate more and faster turnover?  Second, is there room in between buyer and seller for a cross-university, cross-industry broker?  To explore these questions, I’ll generalize the types of IP buyers as start-ups, growing firms, and established firms.

Upon initial contemplation it seems logical, though probably not strictly true, that established firms are, game changing tech aside, not too interested in purchasing IP as they would rather generate it themselves.  Whether through funding internal R&D or university research programs, they have the means to end up with a legal stake in the inventions they want from the beginning.  Now, with a target market of growing firms and start-up ventures, two different rolls are needed – IP landscape surveyor and technology broker.

A growing firm is likely to see IP purchasing as a means to either expand their competency or to protect their competitive advantage.  I can then conjecture to say that such a segment would benefit from an intelligent resource with knowledge of the full IP landscape in their focus.  This growing firm would say: “We make microwidgets and wish to maintain control of our niche market as we expand production.”  The surveyor would then monitor the tech landscape for existing and budding IP that could complete or augment their business.  It may therefore be possible to build an actively monitored IP portfolio filled from many member universities and simply cross-reference the industrial membership’s focus areas to facilitate the transfer of IP.

The third segment of IP buyers in this thought experiment is start-ups.  The orchestration of a new-tech start-up requires relationships with many pieces including business incubators, capital funding sources, and IP.  Universities frequently feature partnered TTOs and incubators but this system shelters the start-up from all the IP that exists outside the home institution.  With an extensive IP database, the broker could act as a resource for bringing together the players necessary to build a successful tech star-up.  It also becomes possible for the broker to sow its own seeds by identifying technologies (possibly across universities), gathering people and capital, and launching knock-out ventures while maintaining a stake of ownership.

The primary barrier here is building trust from both membership groups – universities and companies.  Gaining trust from universities is a challenge due to security and their risk-averse nature, but having an established network of buyers at the ready would be undoubtedly persuasive.  Additionally, working on a commission-based system would allow the broker to prove itself to both sides without demanding financial risk from the member organizations.