Patent reform will put a budget strain on university technology transfer offices

In an interview in Newlogic, Inc, Melba Kurman, president of Triple Helix Innovation, stated America Invents Act’s world-conforming “first-to-file” change will significantly impact the technology transfer processes and budgets in most universities.

Patent reform has made filing provisional patents more the rule than the exception, as grace periods have been modified. As a result, technology transfer offices need to make early calls on whether a new invention is worth the $30k-$40k patent-filing investment.

Increasingly, university technology transfer offices are now turning to ktMINE, the completely searchable and affordable database of over 11,000 licenses in full-text offered by BVR, for help. Early identification of companies that license similar technology, including what they are willing to pay in terms of royalty rates, is invaluable information to a technology transfer staff, both in terms of valuing a new invention and communicating findings to university researchers.