Patenting & Licensing of Early-Stage University Technology

CTV’s Executive Director Orin Herskowitz talks about the exciting world of patenting and licensing early-stage university technologies, including examples of scientific inventions, how patent decisions get made, and how license agreements are negotiated, both within Columbia and across the industry. In this lecture Orin discusses why patents are making headlines in recent years [2:09], what role universities occupy in this space [6:33], what is meant by an “invention” [8:38], what happens after a technology is licensed [12:17], why it’s hard for new technology to make it to the marketplace [15:35], why university technology transfer has an extra time crunch than a typical research environment [22:15], provisional patents [24:00], different types of licensing [26:20], the mission of Columbia Technology Ventures [31:35], the difference between a patent and an invention [34:10], key terms in licensing agreements [52:21], and balancing all parties’ objectives in licensing [56:30]. For those of you who are new to tech transfer, our core objective is to facilitate the transfer of inventions from academic research to outside organizations for the benefit of society on a local, national and global basis. Each year, CTV manages nearly 400 invention disclosures from faculty, 100 license deals and 15+ new start-ups. CTV currently has over 1200 patent assets available for licensing, across research fields such as bio, IT, cleantech, devices, nanotechnology, and material science. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Orin Herskowitz is the Vice President of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer for Columbia Technology Ventures. Prior to joining CTV as Chief Operating Officer in early 2006, Orin spent seven years with the Boston Consulting Group's New York office and, before that, founded and managed a media services start-up company. Orin holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School.