Author: Marie Powers

Jubilant Organosys Limited of Noida, India, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and Birmingham-based Southern Research Institute have entered a joint venture that will leverage their collective innovation and enabling technologies in oncology, metabolic disease, and infectious diseases. According to a memorandum of understanding signed by the parties, key components of the agreement include selecting the most promising biological targets at the partner organizations, developing new drugs around these targets, using early research data to secure federal funding, securing partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry, and licensing drugs to pharmaceutical companies. “UAB has tremendous strength in research that identifies the targets — usually proteins — that contribute to the disease process,” explains Richard B. Marchase, UAB vice president for research and economic development. “Southern Research and Jubilant have the expertise, scientific work force, and equipment to take those findings and move them rapidly through the drug discovery and testing phases that lead to new commercially viable products.”

Southern Research, a nonprofit scientific research organization, has discovered and helped move seven FDA-approved cancer drugs to market, with five more drugs in late-stage preclinical and early clinical studies. Jubilant is India’s largest custom research and manufacturing services company. The firm also plans to partner with Duke University School of Medicine on drug discovery and development through its subsidiary, Jubilant Biosys Limited. The nonexclusive collaboration will apply Jubilant’s portfolio of drug development capabilities toward discoveries made at Duke. The process is designed to move early-stage translational technologies closer to clinical application, with the parties sharing revenues from successful technologies through licensing or partnership deals.

Sources: FierceBiotech and FierceBiotech

For Thomas Moore, PhD, director of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis and a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University, an invitation to guest lecture turned into a joint invention with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that contributed to a sustainable energy start-up. Moore had been asked to speak at a summer course taught by Daniel Nocera, PhD, the Henry Dreyfus professor of energy and professor of chemistry at MIT. After the lecture, Moore visited the MIT labs for a demonstration of a new catalyst that could split water into hydrogen and oxygen — a potential pathway to sustainable energy production. As the demonstration came to a close and the group headed to lunch, Moore mentioned that a type of solar cell he was developing could serve as a power source to enhance the ability of the catalyst to create this reaction. The co-invention was born, with Moore and his team developing a dye-sensitized solar cell that could power the MIT catalyst more cost-effectively. “This is what happens when scientists get together to dream,” Moore says. Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), which manages ASU’s IP, entered into an agreement with MIT’s TTO to protect and market the joint invention, which has been licensed to Sun Catalytix, a Cambridge, MA-based early-stage renewable energy start-up.

Source: ASU News

The University of Colorado (CU) has executed a license agreement with Aurora, CO-based ValveXchange, Inc., for a process to transform cardiac imaging data into high-quality, three-dimensional models used for heart valve product development, clinician training, and pre-procedure planning. The CU technology converts data from routine medical imaging of soft tissues — ultrasounds and CT and MRI scans — into 3D models, which are then transformed into physical models using 3D printers. ValveXchange is developing an artificial heart valve that has the advantages of existing tissue-based heart valves but can be implanted and replaced through a small incision between the ribs. The approach is expected to replace traditional open-heart surgery for many heart valve procedures. The 3D heart modeling technology allows the company to develop replacement valves using patient-specific heart anatomy examples, and later to train physicians in implant techniques in a highly realistic manner. “We expect this advance in 3D heart modeling to provide ValveXchange with a real advantage in the market space,” says company CEO Larry Blankenship.

Source: Knowledge Innovation Technology

SiMPore, Inc., a start-up based in large part around technology licensed from the University of Rochester (NY), has launched its first product — a miniscule filter for a transmission electron microscope (TEM) — and hopes to have its second on the market within a few months. The TEM Grid is packaged in a plastic container smaller than a business card. The clear case contains an orderly arrangement of 10 dots, each about the size of a small bird’s eye. Each of those small discs is a cluster of tiny spots – each a TEM filter. The filters help scientists using an electron beam to look at structures such as proteins. SiMPore’s next filter could be used in protein separation or nanoparticle production. The company also is pitching its products for applications such as medical diagnostics and DNA separations for analysis. With polymer membranes and chromatography as competitors, SiMPore is positioning itself as cheaper and faster than chromatography and more precise than polymer membranes. “It looks like a pretty broad sweet spot,” says CEO Rick Richmond. SiMPore, which employs 10 people, is one of a handful of tech companies based at least partially at UR for the short term, says Gail Norris, director of the university’s OTT. “We were willing to enter into an arm’s-length lease to get (SiMPore) up and running,” she explains.

Source: Democrat and Chronicle

A new study offers proof positive that university incubators can have a profound economic impact. The study, commissioned by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, found that graduate companies of the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Business Incubation Program generated nearly $200 million in total economic impact in 2009. The 10-year-old incubator system maintains seven facilities across a four-county area in central Florida. “Dollar-for-dollar, no other form of public investment has the same economic impact as incubation,” says William H. Owen, president and CEO of Orlando-based Real Estate Research Consultants, Inc., the research firm that conducted the study. Other findings indicate:

• The program helped create more than 1,600 jobs in the region.
• Every $1 invested by local governments participating in the UCF incubator program is returning at least $5.25 in local government revenue in the form of property and sales taxes.
• Since its inception, the program has helped 125 companies, including 70 current clients and more than 30 “graduates.”
• Twenty-seven graduate companies remain in business in central Florida, typically earning $1 million to $3 million in annual revenue.

According to surveys of graduate companies, at least 55 grants totaling more than $33 million in SBIR/STTR funding have been awarded to client and graduate companies of the UCF incubators. Another $50 million has come from other federal and state grants that support ongoing technology development.

Source: Orlando Business Journal

The University of Limerick, Ireland, has struck two license agreements worth more than US$1 million for micro cooler technology developed at its Stokes Institute. The technology is used to cool devices in the computer and electronics industries. U-Limerick granted Sunnyvale, CA-based Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) a development license to customize the micro cooler technology for its next-generation products. In addition, the university signed a worldwide, non-exclusive license with Asia Vital Components (AVC) — the world’s largest supplier of coolers for central processing units and microchip modules — to make and sell the micro cooler. Initially, the deals involve up to 50 million units. Future volumes could eventually exceed hundreds of millions of micro coolers, generating additional licensing revenue for the university.

The licensed technology combines a new fluidic phenomenon with specially arranged cooling surfaces. The innovation offers improved performance, reduced energy consumption, lower noise, and reduced manufacturing costs, enabling the development of smaller, quieter, and more energy-efficient products. “In terms of personal electronic devices of all kinds, the world is moving towards smaller sizes and greater power efficiency,” says Steve Huang, director of sales at AVC. “The team at Stokes Institute [has] designed a cooling technology that can make a huge impact on the ability of manufacturers to deliver these attributes at reduced cost.” Because the agreements are non-exclusive, the university expects to cut additional deals to bring the micro coolers to other industries. “It’s a license on a small part of our technology in this space,” explains Edmond Walsh, PhD, MASME, senior research fellow at the Stokes Institute. “This has allowed us to understand how the industry works — the suppliers and the supply chain. We’ve kept the high-value stuff, and we hope that may lead to a spinout in the future or higher value licenses with other players.”

Sources: Business and Leadership and The Irish Times

Two distance learning events in December cover two ends of the tech transfer spectrum – establishing and structuring effective partnerships, and then monitoring them effectively on the back end. Tech Transfer Partnerships: Establishing Effective Legal and Operational Structures for Long-Term Success will be held December 8, and Post-License Monitoring and Support: Performance and Revenue Enhancement Strategies (and When All Else Fails How to Pull the Plug and Take Back Your IP) is scheduled for December 16. Click on either title for complete program and faculty information.

Scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) in Boca Raton have developed the first technique to produce beaded (nucleated) and non-beaded cultured pearls from the queen conch. Nucleated cultured pearls are produced by inserting a piece of mantle tissue from a donor mollusk and a nucleus, usually a spherical piece of shell, into the body of a recipient mollusk. Non-nucleated pearls are produced by grafting only a piece or pieces of mantle tissue, and no bead is inserted. The proprietary seeding techniques developed at HBOI successfully coaxed pearls that would be extremely rare if they occurred naturally. Ordinarily, it takes opening about 10,000 queen conch to find one conch pearl, and only one in 100 of those finds would be of gem quality, according to the university. The discovery offers a unique opportunity to introduce a new gem to the industry.

For more than 25 years, scientists have attempted to culture pearls from the queen conch (Strombus gigas). In less than two years of research and experimentation, HBOI researchers Hector Acosta-Salmon, PhD, and Megan Davis, PhD, produced more than 200 cultured pearls using two seeding techniques. One was a modification of the conventional technique used to produce cultured pearls in freshwater mussels, and the other was a modification of the conventional technique used in marine pearl oysters. “Perhaps the most significant outcome from our research is that the technique we have developed does not require sacrificing the conch in the process,” Davis says. “The 100% survival rate of queen conch after seeding and the fact that it will produce another pearl after the first pearl is harvested will make this culturing process more efficient and environmentally sustainable for commercial application.”

Source: National Jeweler

The Australian start-up WarraPharm Pty Ltd. will commercialize a suite of anti-cancer reformulations developed by researchers at the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. WarraPharm develops proprietary reformulations that seek to reduce the side effects of widely prescribed anti-neoplastic agents. Working with the UOW’s commercialization partner, UniQuest, WarraPharm secured an exclusive license for the IP surrounding its lead reformulation, Fluorodex, and other reformulations. A team led by John Bremner, PhD, emeritus professor at UOW’s School of Chemistry, and Philip Clingan, MBBS, UOW clinical professor and director of medical oncology in the Cancer Care Centre at Wollongong Hospital, developed the technology, which combines 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin — two of the most commonly prescribed anti-cancer agents — into Fluorodex.

In preclinical testing, the reformulation achieved comparable outcomes to current standard-of-care chemotherapies with fewer side effects. “Adverse events associated with colorectal cancer treatment, such as peripheral neuropathy, phlebitis, hand-foot syndrome, and sepsis are particularly unpleasant for patients,” explains WarraPharm researcher Tamantha Stutchbury, PhD. “The latest toxicity and safety data has shown Fluorodex to have a significantly reduced adverse event profile. This suggests treatment outcomes could be improved because patients would be less likely to have to interrupt or discontinue their chemotherapy.” The company expects the Fluorodex formulation to enter clinical trials late next year.

In addition, Houston, TX-based RadiaDyne is using a prostate cancer treatment device developed by UOW researchers to enhance its prostate immobilizer balloon system. The RadiaDyne system, which supports adaptive radiation therapy for prostate cancer patients, incorporates sensors developed by UOW’s Centre for Medical Radiation Physics that detect and measure in real time the radiation exposure immediately adjacent to the rectal wall during a patient’s prostate cancer treatment. “The rectal wall is an area particularly susceptible to radiation exposure,” explains Tony Enright, UniQuest’s manager of innovation and commercialization at UOW. “For patients undergoing adaptive radiation therapy, this advance in the technology means greater protection from potential complications that are known to occur.” RadiaDyne inked an exclusive license with UOW for the technology and expects to launch commercial sales of its updated system in the U.S. within six months, pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Source: UniQuest and UniQuest

Biomedical engineering and chemistry are two hot spots for innovation at the University of Memphis and its FedEx Institute of Technology. The institute was launched in 2003, and the university’s OTT was established just last year. Since then, Shaye Mandle, an attorney who serves as the institute’s executive director, and Kevin Boggs, PhD, MBA, director of technology transfer and research development, have cast a wide net. Boggs’ office oversees biotech research on the campus, while the institute provides research grants and assistance with patent costs. One of its star researchers is Warren Haggard, PhD, professor and director of the university’s biomedical engineering department. He has been developing a pellet-type delivery system that allows antibiotics to be administered to traumatic wounds at the scene of the injury. Haggard also is developing an antibiotic delivery system using a biodegradable sponge that delivers local antibiotics within a wound and then dissolves. A surgeon can soak the sponge in an antibiotic solution, trim it to fit the wound, and sew up the incision without having to perform follow-up surgery to remove the sponge. Haggard and his team have even devised a method to manipulate the sponge’s degradation time, depending on the amount of antibiotics to be released. “We’ve heard that orthopedic surgeons are clamoring for this,” Boggs says. The OTT is approaching medical device companies about the technology.

Source: Memphis Daily News

Chicago-based IPXtract, an IP development firm, has affiliated with the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette. The university-affiliated business incubation complex is owned and managed by the Purdue Research Foundation and houses more than 157 companies. IPXtract’s business model provides entrepreneurs with marketing, promotion, and other support in exchange for an interest in the companies that are formed, according to Chris Haigh, IPXtract’s president and an alumnus of Purdue University’s College of Engineering. “If we become excited about the venture, the clients don’t have to pay for our hourly work and everyone benefits from the success of the newly formed company,” Haigh says. Because they don’t pay hourly fees, entrepreneurs who work with IPXtract can save money during the invention development and IP protection process. The IPXtract team also is allied with firms that can protect patents should litigation occur.

“IPXtract can help solicit funding that can be used to determine how to make the client’s product and take it to the market while the patent process is progressing,” Haigh says. “Because IPXtract does not make money until our client’s company makes money, we are as motivated as our clients to get products up and running.” Affiliating with the Purdue Research Park enables IPXtract and its clients to interface with Purdue’s engineering department and to tap in-house services for marketing, promotion, and event planning.

Source: Inside Indiana Business

A number of TTOs in the U.S. have gotten their feet wet in the world of social networking, but what Brian McCaul, ICT, director of commercialization & exploitation in the Enterprise & Innovation Office at the University of Leeds (UK), proposed recently is well beyond what any have attempted and perhaps what many have imagined: A new world of tech transfer — or knowledge transfer in common European parlance — in which social networking forms the foundation for a revolution in the way innovation makes its way into the marketplace. McCaul recently set out six propositions to distinguish today’s tech transfer and knowledge transfer (KT) from what he is calling ‘KT 2.0.’ The propositions don’t focus on social networking per se, but rather describe the key differences he sees between the ‘old school’ tech transfer operating style and the TTO/KTO as it should be operated in today’s environment — and in the future:

1. KT used to be about assembling and employing the most able team. KT 2.0 is about assembling the right network.
2. KT used to be primarily about ‘Tech-Push.’ KT 2.0 is about maximizing Market Pull.
3. KT was about driving as much resource into a project as possible, to maximize its likelihood of success. KT 2.0 is about learning to ‘fail early’ and cheaply.
4. KT was primarily about legal, technical/regulatory and commercial matters – in that order. KT 2.0 understands that there are continually new innovation drivers emerging, be that the need for ‘business model innovation’ or ‘design innovation’ or the need to engage ‘user innovation,’ or some other emerging factor.
5. KT was about research excellence in groups or individuals. KT 2.0 is premised on the notion that innovation is a social process, and that the most interesting opportunities are likely to arise from cross-disciplinary collaborations.
6. KT was, primarily, focused on the large VC deal, and avoidance of the ‘living dead’ spinout or ‘small’ license deals. KT 2.0 understands that the funding environment is very different, and even if the ‘IPO model’ and VC investment comes back to full vigor, alternative funding/exit strategies will become an increasingly important part of the mix. (The complete weblog can be found here).

A detailed article on the proposals and the practical aspects of implementing them in TTOs appears in the October issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have begun to benefit from federal grants supporting high-risk research. But long before such opportunities existed, UCSF formed its own program to encourage faculty and postdoctoral fellows to think boldly. The Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research (PBBR) currently awards about $6 million every year to projects of potentially high impact that are substantially more creative or risky than projects supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other traditional funding mechanisms. Despite its relatively small size, the 13-year-old PBBR, formerly known as the Sandler Program in Basic Science, has generated more than $300 million in subsequent grant funding.

Among recipients is Wendell Lim, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, who is engineering “smart cells” that are programmed to carry out novel therapeutic functions in cancer and regenerative medicine. His lab’s PBBR grant enabled him to advance his research to the point where the NIH started to take notice. The PBBR also opened doors for Allison Doupe, MD, PhD, whose pioneering and somewhat quirky research into songbird learning has revealed clues that may improve the scientific community’s understanding of human brain development and disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease. Doupe, a professor of psychiatry and physiology and a member of UCSF’s Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience, found that songbirds — like humans — have specialized areas of the brain devoted to learning. By altering the part of the brain known as the basal ganglia, Doupe and her colleagues effectively eliminated variability in the birds’ songs, which interfered with their ability to learn. Since receiving her PBBR grant, Doupe has also obtained funding from the NIH and several research foundations. Says Keith Yamamoto, PhD, PBBR director and executive vice dean of the UCSF School of Medicine: “The message to our researchers is: We so value the kind of thinking you do, and we want to support it and promote it.”

Source: Science Cafe

Using peptide-based IP licensed from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston-based biotech start-up FirstString Research is developing and commercializing therapeutics for scar prevention and tissue regeneration. Initially aimed at preventing or reducing scars from surgical wounds, the technology may have wide-ranging applications. The company’s proprietary therapies modulate intercellular communication to significantly reduce the development of scar tissue while improving the body’s ability to produce healthy, functional cells. Its lead compound, ACT I, has shown efficacy in many tissue types, including the skin, spinal cord, and internal organs. The platform technology has numerous potential applications, according to Gautam Ghatnekar, PhD, the company’s president and CEO. The first application as a topical gel to prevent or reduce scarring from surgical wounds is “low hanging fruit,” he says. Based on consistent and positive early results, FirstString has already received regulatory approval in Europe to enter clinical phase testing of the gel. The company also has seen good preclinical data in spinal cord injury and cardiac applications, and its next focus is in the area of macular degeneration. Since its founding in 2005, the four-employee company has raised $4 million in equity funding, according to Ghatnekar.

Source: TechJournal South

Most existing IP valuation methods are either inexpensive but yield very coarse results, or so expensive they’re beyond the reach of cash-strapped TTOs. A new software-based method, the Competitive Advantage Valuation (CAV) system, was specifically developed to provide the precision you need at a price you can afford. No other valuation method yields its level of precision at such a low price — now even lower under a collaboration with 2Market Information Inc., parent company of Tech Transfer E-News. The CAV method was developed over many years to value IP assets and formulate technology commercialization strategies on behalf of corporate, university and federal laboratory clients of the Technology Commercialization Research Center at Syracuse University. The CAV method provides accurate, affordable and objective valuation results that are:

• Specific for dollar amounts and percentages
• Repeatable for testing and comparing valuation results
• Affordable in terms of information, analysis and time costs
• Flexible for usage in multiple valuation contexts
• Scalable for performing simple and complex valuations

The CAV Software gives inventors, licensors, and licensees a single, straightforward method for determining IP value. Created by nationally recognized IP law expert Ted Hagelin, the software yields clear and logical valuation results through a single program platform for effective negotiation, planning and reporting. The easy-to-use CAV system includes detailed explanations and instructions for each step of the process, and over 75 research resources to obtain the information needed for valuation. For a limited time this unique tool is available for only $380 (regularly $630). For complete details and to order, CLICK HERE.

Materials scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have found a new use for a chemical compound that traditionally has been viewed as an electrical conductor. By orienting the compound in a different way, the researchers have transformed it into a thin film insulator, which blocks rather than enhances the flow of electricity while inducing large electric currents elsewhere. The material, called solution-deposited beta-alumina, could have applications in transistor technology and in devices such as electronic books. The discovery is described in Nature Materials. “This form of sodium beta-alumina has some very useful characteristics,” says Howard E. Katz, PhD, chair and professor of materials science and engineering, who supervised the Johns Hopkins team. “The material is produced in a liquid state, which means it can easily be deposited onto a surface in a precise pattern for the formation of printed circuits,” he explains. “But when it’s heated, it forms a solid, thin transparent film. In addition, it allows us to operate at low voltages, meaning it requires less power to induce useful current.” Thus, applications could operate with batteries instead of a wall outlet. The transparency and thinness of the material make it ideal for use in the increasingly popular e-book readers, which rely on see-through screens and portable power sources, Katz said. Potential transportation applications include instrument readouts that can be displayed in the windshield of an aircraft or a ground vehicle.

Source: Nanowerk

Working like an architect, Hagit Eldar-Finkelman, a professor in the department of human molecular genetics and biochemistry at Tel Aviv (Israel) University’s Sackler School of Medicine, is “building” a new drug — L803-MTS — to treat central nervous system (CNS) diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In preclinical studies, the compound also shows promise against Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and diabetes. L803-MTS is based on the physical structure of the GSK3 protein, which plays a causative role in insulin resistance and type II diabetes. Working with chemists, biotechnologists, and 3-D modelists, Eldar-Finkelman and colleagues built — like engineers constructing a building — a drug that locks onto the GSK3 protein, rendering it harmless and unable to wreak havoc inside the body. Research findings on the L803-MTS drug have been published in the Journal of Molecular Biology and Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Proteins and Proteomics.

Since Eldar-Finkelman linked GSK3 to insulin resistance in diabetes more than 10 years ago, a race has been on among drug manufacturers to find a drug that can potentially turn off the harmful effects of the protein. Rather than build on existing drugs, Eldar-Finkelman and her colleagues worked from the ground up. “I decided to take a completely different approach from all the big drug companies rushing to find the ultimate drug,” Eldar-Finkelman says. “I designed my own.” Preclinical results have been positive, and the new drug does not exhibit dangerous toxic side effects — a problem with existing formulations. While L803-MTS cannot reverse the onset of a CNS disease, Eldar-Finkelman believes it can slow devastating effects such as memory impairment, depression, and insulin-resistance. With seed money from Ramot, the university’s TTO, she’s taken her basic research to the next step and is seeking a strategic partner to guide the research through the clinical process and eventual commercialization.

Source: Science Daily

The long-awaited case of Bilski and Warsaw v. Kappos, which could reshape the patent world, finally landed in the U.S. Supreme Court this week. During one-hour oral arguments, several justices — including the court’s newest member, Sonia M. Sotomayor — expressed skepticism about affording patent protection to business methods. The heralded case concerns a patent that had been denied to Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw for a process that could help utilities, factories, and schools have more predictable energy costs. Justices peppered J. Michael Jakes, a lawyer for Bilski and Warsaw, with hypothetical patents that they clearly found ludicrous. Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that under Jakes’ argument, a patent for “somebody who writes a book on how to win friends and influence people” might be allowed, while Sotomayor suggested a “method of speed dating.” Justice Stephen G. Breyer set off a ripple of laughter when he mentioned his “great, wonderful, really original method of teaching antitrust law” — one in which 80% of students actually stayed awake — and asked if that could be patented. Scalia also asked why, during the nation’s horse-based economy in the 1800s, there were no patents directed to methods of training horses, as this would certainly have been useful at the time.

Nevertheless, the Justices seemed to struggle with framing an appropriate solution for Bilski and appeared mindful of the potential consequences of their ruling. Breyer asked whether the framers of the Constitution intended for every “new” method that helps a business owner conduct business to be patentable, intimating that Bilski’s proposed test could be too encompassing and asking for a more reasonable alternative, such as “useful arts.” Breyer indicated that the justices needed to consider four factors — two positive and two negative — in making their decision. On the plus side, a patent offers monopoly power to the inventor and disclosure to the public, he said. On the downside, a patent raises prices when the monopoly is in play and slows progress while users seek a license or permission to practice. Although, historically, patents have been used to protect the processes performed by machines, Breyer admitted that he was unsure whether providing patent protection to information “will do no harm or more harm than good.” Sotomayor also told Jakes that “a patent limits the free flow of information. It requires licensing fees and other steps — legal steps. So you can’t argue that your definition is improving the free flow of information.”

The high-water mark for business method patents was a 1998 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group that a method of processing mutual fund data could be patented. The ramifications of that case were discussed during the oral arguments. Nearly 70 amicus briefs were filed in the Bilski case by parties ranging from Microsoft to the American Civil Liberties Union. “This case is the case of the century for patent law,” says John F. Duffy, a professor at the George Washington University Law School and co-author of a brief on behalf of several technology companies. “There’s a tremendous public benefit that could come from encouraging innovation in this space.” But Pamela Samuelson, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and author of a brief on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says it’s time for the court to tap the brakes on business method patents. The State Street decision had the effect of “knocking patent law loose from its historical moorings and improperly injecting patents into business areas where they were neither needed nor wanted,” according to her brief. A decision is expected before the end of the Court’s current term in June 2010.

Sources: The New York Times, Patently-O, and Patently-O

The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and a consortium of six major U.S. research universities have endorsed a global health initiative designed to speed access to affordable medicines in the developing world. The group has signed onto a plan that will insist licensees to university-created therapies, such as pharma companies, agree to help make those therapies more widely available in developing countries. By inking the “Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies,” Harvard, Yale, Brown, Boston, and Oregon Health & Science Universities and the University of Pennsylvania, together with AUTM, committed to “implementing technology transfer strategies that promote the availability of health-related technologies in developing countries for essential medical care.” The initiative takes a major step beyond “Nine Points to Consider in Licensing University Technology,” a 2007 statement endorsed by nearly six dozen research and academic institutions, and includes a Global Health Toolkit created by AUTM members. The toolkit allows TTOs to share information on structuring licenses that promote innovation and product development while encouraging access to essential medicines. The toolkit includes sample clauses taken from signed license agreements that include global access language acceptable to the licensees. AUTM plans to update the toolkit as TTOs gain experience and provide feedback on it, according to Arundeep S. Pradhan, associate vice president, technology transfer and business development, at Oregon Health & Science University and president of AUTM.

The effort to hasten the development and dissemination of technologies and medications to ease the global health crisis began last spring when Harvard and Yale hosted a gathering of TTOs from a dozen U.S. research institutions. The daylong meeting and months of follow-up conference calls provided the framework for the document. The student group Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) also pushed for the effort. The consensus statement describes a number of strategies to facilitate generic production or below-market pricing and commits the universities to, among other things:

• make “vigorous efforts to develop creative and effective licensing strategies that help to promote global access to health related technologies;”
• ensure that IP “should not become a barrier to essential health-related technologies needed by patients in developing countries;”
• exert control over patent rights in such a way as to foster the availability of life-saving products in the developing world; and
• support the development of health-related technologies aimed at diseases that disproportionately burden individuals in the developing world — tuberculosis, AIDS, water-borne disease, tropical- and other region-specific ailments and parasitic infections — without regard for economic gain.

Officials at AUTM and the six schools wanted to craft guidelines that encourage drug access for poor nations without dissuading companies from working with university scientists, according to Maryanne Fenerjian, Harvard’s director of technology transfer policy. Participating schools will use strategies such as decreasing royalty rates to persuade companies to charge less or allow low-cost generic production of new drugs for poor patients, she says. Harvard has already used techniques cited in the toolkit to help promote access to medicines. When the university licensed a tuberculosis vaccine technology in 2007 to Hong Kong-based Morningside Group, the company agreed to sell the vaccine at affordable prices in developing countries. “It’s important that our intellectual property doesn’t serve as a barrier — and in some cases should be used as leverage — to help ensure that drugs, vaccines, and other technologies reach the developing world,” Fenerjian says. “But there is no single solution. Every technology is different and every licensee’s capabilities and sensitivities are different.”

The six universities expect other private and public universities to adopt the principles once they are broadly disseminated. “A number of institutions have been willing to be tough and creative on these issues,” Fenerjian says. “Until now, we haven’t had a statement that says this is what we see as our goal — this is what we see as our new norm.” Universities can endorse the statement of principles at http://www.autm.net/endorse.

Sources: Yale University Office of Public Affairs and Bloomberg.com

Royalty Rates for Trademarks & Copyrights, 4th Edition has just been published, with 30% more transactions and benchmark rates featured. Along with an unrivaled set of benchmarks and real-world rates from transactions completed through 2009, this 4th edition, published by IPRA Inc. and authored by royalty and valuation expert Russell Parr, also shows how to implement financial models for the derivation of royalty rates. Details are include on rules of thumb, profit differential calculations, investment rate of return analyses, and discounted cash flow analysis, along with examples that can be used as a template for your specific applications. For details, a table of contents, sample pages, and to order, CLICK HERE.