An IP mining approach called the Innovation Discovery Process, developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC Crane) and the University of Southern Indiana’s Center for Applied Research (USI‐CAR), of Evansville, IN, has resulted in both increased disclosures and a clearer understanding on the part of potential licensees and partners of military research center’s capabilities. In an 11-month pilot program involving three data mining events, 16 projects were reviewed by expert panels resulting in 76 potential inventions and 187 potential commercial applications.

In the years prior to this new program, the pace of disclosures was far more modest, says John Dement, Technology Engagement Office/ORTA for NSWC Crane Division. “For fiscal year 2009 we had 48 disclosures; in 2008, we had 44; and in 2007-6 we had 16 and 13, respectively,” reports Dement. “This is a real big jump.” In addition, he notes, 56 patent applications were filed in 2009, 14 in 2008, and 6 in 2007.

But that hasn’t been the only benefit of these events, says Dement. “We’ve also been training our partners on who we are, what our mission is, and what our sharable resources are — IP, testing and manufacturing capability, and access to our engineers,” he notes. “It’s the notoriety we’ve gained through press releases, articles and reports — people see we’ve become innovative with our IP and the transfer of our federal lab results to businesses. I now have people beating down our doors to know what IP we have, and the number of CRADA’s and patent licensing applications have dramatically increased.”

Susan J. Ellspermann, PhD, Director of the USI‐CAR, explains the need for a new IP discovery process.  “Crane . . . has great engineers and problem solvers, but they can also do the kinds of things more traditional research labs cannot do — more applied science. However, they never thought about whether what they did was patentable; they were just focused on doing good work for DoD.” Over time, she continues, Crane has been transitioning into a true research organization with many more PhDs on staff, and much more front-end innovation than had been generated in the past. “They were almost sure there was IP sitting around, because they knew they were doing innovative things, but the engineers on their own would not have recognized it as any big deal, or taken the time to write up a disclosure even if they did,” says Ellspermann. “These events were a way to help ensure that Crane was uncovering the relevant IP on significant projects they had implemented.” A detailed article on the IP mining events appears in the March 2010 issue of Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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