Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 9, September 2012

• Program helps FSU bridge marketing “GAP” for its inventors. During a recent session at the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Community Conference, Jacob VanLandingham, PhD, a member of the FSU College of Medicine faculty, credited the university with helping researchers such as himself advance the commercial prospects for their discoveries.
• Magazine provides stakeholders a “Glimpse” into new research at Clemson. When Gerald Sonnenfeld, PhD, assumed his position as vice president for research at Clemson University, he realized that one of the marketing tools he had employed successfully at another university was not in place; a regular magazine that kept the community informed about research activity.
• Investors “get on the bus” to visit labs and explore tech transfer opportunities. The growing partnership between tech transfer and economic development was clearly evident recently when the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville coordinated a “Get on the Bus” event which brought over 50 community and business leaders for a day to discuss tech transfer opportunities.
• “Inventor’s Handbook” a dual-purpose vehicle for Harvard’s TTO. It may not be called “Everything you wanted to know about tech transfer but were afraid to ask,” but Harvard University’s “Faculty Guide to IP and Technology Development” covers the basics and then some for researchers who are unfamiliar with the commercialization process.
• Surveys help cement better relationships with faculty members. Surveys can be effective tools for measuring how well an event, publication, or some other product of the TTO has been received, but they can also be much more than that.
• New head of TTO considers himself “employee” of faculty. “I see myself as an employee of the professors,” said William Aylor, in a press release reporting his appointment as the head of the technology transfer office at South Dakota State University.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 8, August 2012

• Colorado center uses staged model to create companies based on university IP. The Innovation Center of the Rockies, or ICR, is not quite like other “incubators.” It is set up as a non-profit; it does not have any “brick and mortar” facilities; and it does not take any equity in the companies it works with.
• U Michigan models tech events to create “Unconference” for local entrepreneurs. Using a model developed in the tech community, the University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer recently hosted an “Unconference” for entrepreneurs, investors, and inventors that Mark Maynard, marketing manager and TechStart manager, deems a big success.
• UCF promotes online votes to help spinoff compete for award. Social media is used in all kinds of ways to help market university technologies, but here’s one you might not have seen before: promoting online voting to help a start-up win a business plan competition.
• Experts share keys to IP marketing on a tight budget. With budgets growing ever tighter — but with no lowering of expectations among administrators or faculty — approaches to IP marketing that make little or no dent in the wallet are ever more valued by TTO executives.
• Entrepreneurship Forum draws major firms to U Manchester to explore collaborations. Enticing Eli Lilly and Company to commit to an overseas campus visit is no doubt a coup, but for the University of Manchester in the U.K., Lilly is but one of six major pharmaceutical and healthcare companies that have participated in the newly established “Entrepreneurship Forum” program since its inception early this year.
• Over 600 Ohio U students showcase research at expo. A number of universities showcase their students’ inventions and research at annual events, but it’s fair to say that few — if any — garner the participation of as many students (over 600) as did Ohio University in its most recent Student Research and Creative Activity Expo.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 7, July 2012

• Being ‘Office of Yes’ yields high disclosure rate for Caltech OTT. The Office of Technology Transfer at Caltech prides itself in being the “office of yes” as opposed to the “office of no.”
• ‘Student TTO’ connects innovators with resources, promotes entrepreneurship. The Student Commercialization Board at Ohio State University, which began operations in March 2012, has been referred
  to as “almost a student tech transfer office.”
• High school competition seeks to encourage entrepreneurial spirit. Business plan competitions have become fairly common in the world of tech transfer, but virtually all of them involve graduate or undergraduate students. The University of Maryland recently broke that pattern, hosting a competition that involved high school students.
• Universities make most of national conference in their ‘backyard.’ Having a national conference sponsored by federal agencies take place in your region is a potential marketing bonanza, and several organizations in Kentucky took full advantage of the annual National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer conference (SBIR/STTR), which was recently held in Louisville.
• U.K. student biotech group leads to creation of “Facebook for inventors.” The press in the U.K. is referring to the recently launched networking site Marblar (Marblar.com) as a “Facebook for inventors,” but this was not the original intent of one of its founders. Rather, it grew out of a need he came to recognize for a better way to connect industry with students involved in commercially focused research.
• Tailor your presentation to the audience when foreign organizations visit. Because of its resources and convenient location, the University of California San Diego probably sees more than its share of foreign representatives — and that includes its.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 6, June 2012

• Columbia e-mail marketing program yields impressive returns for minimal cost. There may be an ongoing debate in university TTO circles about the effectiveness of e-mail marketing, but there’s no such debate inside Columbia Technology Ventures.
• Content plays pivotal role in achieving high search ranking for U Colorado TTO. With SEO commonly seen as the path to a high search engine ranking, it makes sense that so much time is spent on the care and feeding of appropriate keywords and the ins and outs of social networking. However, there’s more than one way to skin this “cat.”
• UK university’s awards program recognizes inventors’ impact on society. Countless universities in the U.S. and abroad recognize their inventors at annual awards ceremonies, usually citing inventions that have been patented, disclosed or licensed in the past year. But Loughborough University in the U.K. has taken a different approach: Its Enterprise Awards program recognizes how university IP has contributed to the betterment of society — a goal most universities see as part of their mission but that few, if any, formally recognize.
• ASU seeks to forge successful startups in its new “furnace.” On the heels of the successful launch of its Rapid Startup School, Arizona State University’s Venture Catalyst is launching a new start-up accelerator aimed at individuals who wish to start companies based on university IP and selected partner organizations.
• U Rochester touts its ‘Entrepreneur-Ready’ inventions on website. Most TTO websites will select and feature several inventions they feel will attract the greatest amount of interest from potential licensees, but the University of Rochester has put its own special twist on this approach.
• Irish entrepreneur seeks to commercialize overlooked university innovations. Only a relatively small number of innovations in Ireland actually make it from the research bench to commercialization, says entrepreneur Joe O’Keeffe, but he is looking to reverse that trend through his organization, ScienceWorks.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 5, May 2012

• ‘Competitive Technical Intelligence’ cited as critical IP marketing tool. Determining which inventions have the greatest chance for commercial success is one of the biggest challenges an IP marketer faces; identifying marketable applications, identifying potential partners and getting noticed by them are also processes where TTO leaders need all the help they can get. According to a panel at the recent AUTM annual meeting in Anaheim, there is an approach that will accomplish all of these: Competitive Technical Intelligence, or CTI.
• Don’t forget the basics when using social media to market technologies. Social media marketing can be challenging, and as the “latest and greatest” of marketing tactics it can also be glamorous, but it’s critical to never take your eyes off the basics.
• Mayo casts wide net to recruit students for help with technology assessment. Many universities use graduate and undergraduate students from their internal communities to help them with IP assessment, but Mayo Clinic Ventures has cast a much wider net.
• “Farm system” for students and recent grads to serve as feeder to accelerators. Incubators are popping up all over the country as the push for economic development through start-up formation intensifies, but the trend toward providing start-up assistance often leaves out a key potential reservoir of innovation: students.
• UMD markets month-long series of events to boost entrepreneurial image. To say the plan was ambitious would be an understatement. The University of Maryland recently launched a campaign dubbed “30 Days of EnTERPreneurship,” a series of events that focused on entrepreneurship at all stages of innovation and awarded nearly $250,000 to UMD faculty, students and alumni.
• NIH, FDA getting outside help for evaluating, licensing more technologies. The NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) has signed a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with BioHealth Innovation (BHI) under which BHI will help both NIH and the FDA in evaluating the commercial potential of their technologies.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 4, April 2012

• Rebranding effort supports restructuring of UVA’s tech transfer program. The recent restructuring of the University of Virginia’s tech transfer operations, under the university-wide umbrella “UVA Innovation,” has signaled a major shift in the school’s approach to commercializing its IP.
• U Limerick starts from scratch to build new incubator model. When you’re seeking to create a successful innovation ecosystem, starting with a clean slate can be a good thing.
• ‘Black box’ analysis helps TTO as well as its stakeholders. Rick Silva, PhD, director of the University of Colorado-Denver Technology Transfer Office, is well aware that far too many TTO stakeholders across the country regard offices like his as a “black box” — something they’re generally aware of but know little about, except maybe a perception of the TTO as a secretive place where everything happens — very slowly — behind a curtain.
• Private equity firm launches crowdsourcing site for universities. Allied Minds, Inc., a private equity firm that invests in university inventions, has launched a crowdsourcing site, AlliedMindStorm.com, as a free service to broaden input for university research.
• Purdue unveils research commercialization center to spur market success. Purdue University has launched its Innovation and Commercialization Center which, according to the university, “will move Purdue discoveries to the marketplace more quickly, increase revenue for the university, and spur economic development in Indiana and the nation.”
• Michigan universities pool resources in new tech transfer “talent network.” In a move that one university tech transfer executive referred to as “altruistic,” the University of Michigan is using a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. as the foundation for a $2.4 million program called the Tech Transfer Talent Network, designed to accelerate technology commercialization by connecting entrepreneurs and experts to ideas and IP at seven universities.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 3, March 2012

• ‘Know your first customer’ to build winning business plan. From a marketing perspective, the key to a successful business plan “definitely starts with making sure you understand who your first customer is going to be,” says Thomas M. Heuer, the Richard A. Forsythe Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Farmer School of Business Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami (OH) University.
• Hoops and patents: Inventors are honored at halftime ceremony. “ . . . And now presenting, for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats . . .  Wim Van Ooij, the inventor of new methods for bonding rubber to metals. . . .”  It wasn’t quite as dramatic as that, but it certainly was creative. During halftime at a recent Bearcats game, all of the university inventors who had received patents in 2011 were brought to center court, introduced to the crowd and recognized for their success.
• International networks seen as key to enhancing tech commercialization. They come from opposite sides of the world, and yet they share the same vision: that international outreach and networking can unlock the door to greater success in technology commercialization.
• Medical devices a “different animal” in technology commercialization world. Evaluating IP is always a challenge, but when it comes to medical devices that process is even more involved, notes Randy Nelson, president of medical device maker Evergreen Medical Technologies.
• Despite lack of science, liberal arts school provides “soil” to grow entrepreneurs. Can a small (2,900 students) liberal arts college with precious little in the way of scientific research or technological IP launch a successful program to engender the entrepreneurial spirit in its student body? Apparently it can if it’s Colgate University.
• ‘Pracademic’ modules at heart of ASU’s new Rapid Startup School. It is offered at a university, but it is definitely not an academic program, insists Gordon McConnell, executive director of Arizona State University’s Venture Catalyst, which recently launched the Rapid Startup School program.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 2, February 2012

• Making the right contact critical for nurturing industry relationships. There are many ingredients that make for a successful partnership between a university TTO and industry, but veteran tech transfer execs say perhaps the most critical of all is identifying the right industry contact and building a strong relationship with that individual.
• Project scouts share common mistakes TTOs make in technology listings. As with many organizations, leaders of TTOs can sometimes be too close to a situation to clearly see what may be going wrong.
• TTO’s PR strategy touts top inventions of the year. The headline of the news release is a definite attention-grabber: “Eight UB Inventions from 2011 That You Won’t Want to Miss.” The headline and the press release were the brainchild of Charlotte Hsu, a PR manager at the University at Buffalo. “It was a way we thought would be good to highlight not just the fact that we’re involved in tech transfer, but that there’s a lot variety in what our researchers are doing.”
• U.K. consultancies offer additional opportunities for faculty outreach. In a recent news release highlighting commercialization efforts in 2011, Cambridge Enterprise (CE), the university´s commercialization group, included as part of its £10.2M income not only licensing and equity transactions, but also consultancy transactions.
• New database aimed at streamlining the technology posting process. “With a lot of online services you have to upload information, register, provide technology details, and provide an Excel file,” says Dave Waddell, explaining the typical process for posting technologies on web-based technology listing sites. “That requires time from a lot of people in the [tech transfer] office.”
• Foundation grant helps WVU expand its commercialization efforts. The University of West Virginia has launched an 18-month program called LIINC, designed to accelerate commercialization efforts, expand and improve ties to industry, and to interface with other institutions in the region to compare notes on best practices.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2012

• Australian university the latest to adopt Easy Access IP model. If you see an innovative approach to disseminating IP working in another part of the world and want to adopt it in your university, there might be several ways you could go about making that happen. But perhaps the most direct option would be to hire the individual who pioneered it.
• “Joe the Researcher” helps teach faculty how to commercialize their innovations. A recent workshop used a slide show starring the fictitious “Joe the Researcher” to teach NC State University faculty members and grad students the ins and outs of commercializing their ideas.
• Cultural shift yields increase in sponsored research funding. Oregon Health & Science University generated a record number of industry-sponsored research agreements in 2011, with 118 such agreements generating more than $12 million. Arundeep Pradhan, MS, associate vice president for the university’s TTO, says this was no accident, but rather the result of a concerted effort to create the kind of “business-friendly” atmosphere that helps lay the foundation for such success.
• New blog highlights emerging technologies at Berkeley Lab. A new blog created by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Department of Communications & Media Relations is being used as a vehicle to feature promising new inventions and relate stories of successful lab-to-marketplace transitions.
• NIH creates new website to fully automate licensing of research materials. In a response to complaints about the length of time it was taking to license out its unpatented research materials, the National Institutes of Health has created a new website that cuts the response time from six months to a few days.
• All Scottish research universities on board for revamped IP portal. The University-Technology.com website was already enjoying a good measure of success as the first initiative of its type in the UK, bringing together leading innovations from 12 research universities in Scotland. However, with the recent launch of a revamped portal, all 19 Scottish universities are now participating.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 12, December 2011

• Start-up funding seen as leading metric for tech transfer efforts. Many TTOs rely on standard metrics such as licensing revenue or number of patents issued to assess their commercialization efforts, but Richard A. Miller, MD, recently named chief commercialization officer and research professor at The University of Texas at Austin, takes a different tack.
• UNH director views TTOs as the ‘original seed stage capitalists.’ Marc Sedam, executive director of the Office of Research Partnerships and Commercialization at the University of New Hampshire, has a unique take on the role of TTOs — which in turn colors the way he markets university IP. “I’ve always looked at tech transfer in a university in ways most people don’t,” he concedes. “We are the original seed stage capitalists — we ‘fund’ ideas.”
• Rutgers pursues diversified approach to generate business partnerships. Rutgers University places a high priority on business partnerships, and because of that it is pursuing several different strategies to strengthen its relationships with industry.
• Aggressive approach doubles university’s invention disclosure rate. An “aggressive” approach to faculty outreach at the University of Manitoba doubled the number of invention disclosures within 19 months and has kept levels high ever since, according to Garold G. Breit, CLP, executive director of the technology transfer office.
•  ‘Beer and Biotech’ fosters ties between industry, university researchers. While in some industries the “buttoned-down” approach still holds sway, that’s apparently not the case in bioscience, as the success of the new “Beer and Biotech” series created by the Virginia Biotechnology Association (VABIO) clearly attests.
• Effective patent landscaping can double as scouting report for potential partners. In the movie “The Paper Chase,” Professor Kingsfield predicts his students will “leave thinking like a lawyer.” While not all IP marketers want, or even need, to become attorneys, “thinking like a lawyer” can be a very good thing.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 11, November 2011

• Alumni cited as vast untapped resource for TTOs. The good news: Most alumni feel close to their alma maters and are more than willing to help them succeed. The not so good news: a relatively small number of TTOs have developed successful alumni outreach programs.
• Use these strategies and tools to improve IP assessment and triage. The main steps in IP triage and assessment are fairly standard and widely used by TTOs of all types and sizes, but as a webinar recently hosted by Technology Transfer Tactics clearly shows, what sets programs apart is what happens within each of those phases. During the webinar, “Best Practices in IP Portfolio Assessment and Triage,” both presenters agreed it’s critical to access a wide range of expert opinion (i.e., inventors, industry, and research assembled by interns) as quickly as possible.
• Visibility, transparency essential elements of successful faculty outreach. An effective faculty outreach program is essential to the success of any commercialization effort, but it becomes even more critical — and time-sensitive — when a new TTO director arrives from another institution.  Michael P. Straightiff, MBA, who was recently named director of the University of Virginia Patent Foundation after serving as director of biomedical engineering commercialization in Case Western Reserve University’s Technology Transfer Office, is keenly aware of that challenge — and he’s also very clear on how he’ll go about addressing it.
• Look beyond numbers when evaluating your marketing initiatives. While TTO leaders agree that metrics are important tools to use when evaluating your marketing programs, they warn against becoming so wedded to hard numbers that you fail to see the entire picture.
• “UPstart” organization helps nascent companies move toward the market. A number of universities have set up organizations to help launch spinoffs, but in many cases those organizations are separate and distinct from the TTO. At the University of Pennsylvania, however, the UPstart program is part of Penn’s Center for Technology Transfer.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 10, October 2011

• De-risking university IP helps optimize chances for commercialization. Bryan Ritchie, who recently took the reins of the Technology Commercialization Office at the University of Utah, plans to follow the same road map that led to his success at Michigan State: adding value to new ideas to the point where firms and partners can successfully take new products to the market.
• ‘Umbrella’ organization brings one-stop shopping to U of Maryland. In an effort to accelerate the pace of innovation and tech transfer, with the goal of ultimately getting more of its research to market, the University of Maryland has created a new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which Maryland President Wallace D. Loh described in a speech at his inauguration as a “one-stop concierge service.”
• Venture fund, faculty education boosting U of Vermont start-ups. The fact that the University of Vermont (UVM) has spun out a growing number of new companies in the last several years is no accident; it is the result of both the creation of a gap fund to help start-ups develop, and a culture change that encourages disclosures and entrepreneurship among faculty members.
• Marketing expert cites four keys to create positive awareness. Whether you’re looking to license a technology, promote a start-up or brand your office, your ultimate goal is to try to create positive awareness.
• New AUTM portal to provide broad access to university IP. If things work out as planned, by the end of the year industry licensors interested in learning about available university IP will be able to access innovations from a wide range of institutions through a single source — the Global Technology Portal currently under development by AUTM.
• Israeli commercialization alliance combines two ‘firsts’ for partners. A recent commercialization cooperation agreement between Yissum Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Shaare Zedek Medical Center, also located in Jerusalem, represents a combination of “firsts” for the two partners.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 9, September 2011

• Service-oriented approach brings more deals and better relations with faculty. In a recent post written jointly by R.F. (Rick) Shangraw Jr., senior vice president in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development at Arizona State University, and Augustine Cheng, the managing director and chief legal officer for Arizona Technology Enterprises at ASU, the co-authors laid out what they termed “a new prescription” for TTOs.
• SUNY listened to stakeholders when crafting new tech transfer web resource. According to Heather Hage, when creating a new web resource for commercialization the three most important words are “listen, listen, listen.”
• Use digital media to make your IP come to life. Whether in the form of a webcast, podcast, or YouTube video, digital media offers an exceptional way to market individual technologies, says Karen Hiser, a senior consultant with Fuentek, LLC. The trick, she says, is determining which approach — or combination of approaches — best suits a given invention.
• ‘Division of labor’ helps U Iowa student group evaluate IP. Deciding which of 50 or 60 proposed inventions has the greatest chance of success is a complex process and requires expertise in a number of areas. A group of students at the University Of Iowa Carver College Of Medicine has addressed that challenge by incorporating members from several key disciplines.
• Penn State merger seen as opportunity for synergy, efficiency. Ronald J. Huss, PhD, associate vice president for research and technology transfer and OTM director at The Pennsylvania State University, says the recent merger of two separate offices on his campus will lead to more coordinated efforts to market the university’s IP.
• Twitter can be a powerful market research tool for your TTO. Though Twitter has become a staple of many marketers’ social media tools, its potential goes beyond customer engagement and mobile marketing, according to one expert who is applying the service as a key strategy in her market research.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 8, August 2011

• Hopkins to make house calls to biotech companies in “Deals on Wheels” effort. The “mountain” will be coming to “Mohammed” in Montgomery County, MD, when Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer launches its “Deals on Wheels” program in the fall. At least once a month, members of the Baltimore-based TTO team will be making personal visits to biotech firms in the area in an effort to bolster outreach and build bridges to the region’s biotech firms.
• ‘Breakfast club’ puts Emory technologies before VCs, entrepreneurs. It may sound like a relatively modest undertaking, but when it comes to marketing its technology Emory University’s Office of Technology Transfer’s semiannual Breakfast Club is “probably the most effective thing we do,” according to Todd Sherer, PhD, associate vice president for research and director of technology transfer.
• Reworked GA Tech website provides more navigable ‘roadmaps’ for key target audiences. A revamped website for Georgia Tech’s technology commercialization services has made it much easier for key audiences to find what they’re looking for and to quickly and easily get there.
• BIO tradeshow preparation reveals UniQuest’s holistic approach to IP marketing. When walking through the halls of a major industry exposition, attendees see the flashy booth displays and the people behind them, but most have little understanding of the preparation that goes into such an undertaking.
• Wellspring collaboration with VIVO offers online ‘researcher profiles.’ Giving your target audience what they want and need is the key to success in any marketing campaign, and the decision makers at Wellspring Worldwide and VIVO have apparently done just that, joining forces to create the new service called Flintbox Researcher Profiles.
• CSU, manufacturing group form partnership to push economic development. A number of universities are seeking closer relationships with economic development entities, but Colorado State University has gone farther than many by actively participating in the economic development process.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2011

• U Delaware uses new logo, website in re-branding effort. The University of Delaware’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships, an organization responsible not only for interfacing with inventors and students but for reaching out to business partners in the state of Delaware and beyond, has undertaken a re-branding effort to more clearly communicate its role to key audiences.
• University offices join forces to “supercharge” TTO’s web offerings. Revamping a TTO website to more effectively market your technologies is no easy task, but as several different departments at the University of Rochester have learned, the process can be made easier — and more successful — when a team consisting of key stakeholders jointly attacks the problem.
• Use of LinkedIn leads to more contacts, new business for BYU. A growing number of TTOs are learning the value of the social network LinkedIn, but few perhaps have employed it as effectively as BYU. Not only does the university receive between three and 20 responses for each post, according to associate director of technology transfer Dee Anderson, but it has already generated new business — with more apparently on the way.
• NUtech Ventures forms intern partnership with business school. NUtech Ventures, a non-profit research corporation that serves as the University of Nebraska’s commercialization arm, has established a partnership with the university’s business college to support up to five interns who work in the NUtech Ventures office to research the commercial potential of university technology.
• Merged offices combine the strengths of university TTO, entrepreneur center. Getting two distinct university departments to drop their “egos” and merge into one organization is always a challenge, but it was one that David Shaw, PhD, vice president for research and economic development at Mississippi State, felt was well worth the effort when he decided to combine the university’s Entrepreneurship Center and its Office of Technology Commercialization.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 6, June 2011

• Market validation plans confirm commercial potential of technologies, start-ups. Okay, so you’ve got a novel technology or a start-up with a product you’re excited about, and you’re optimistic about your chances for success. But does your potential market feel the same? Are they willing to buy your product?
• Market focus is key ingredient in U of Edinburgh’s spinoff success. Grant Wheeler, head of company formation at Edinburgh Research and Innovation, the organization responsible for guiding University of Edinburgh-based research projects to market, is pretty clear on why the university has been successful in producing a high level of spinoffs.
• Students conduct market research, end up as start-up partners. One of them was an interdisciplinary business management major, another was a speech communication major and entrepreneurship minor, a third was a finance major, and a fourth a general engineering major and entrepreneurship minor. Separately, you might not think of them as start-up founder material, but they’ve now inked a license agreement with their alma mater, Miami (OH) University.
• U of Utah Medical Accelerator speeds start-ups to marketplace. Although the University of Utah is widely viewed as one of the most successful creators of academic start-ups, tech transfer officials are certainly not sitting on their laurels. The school launched a new program a year ago that promises to boost start-up generation another notch higher.
• Valuable lessons learned in creating a TTO e-newsletter. Norell Hadzimichalis, PhD, of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey Office of Patents and Licensing, now knows that creating an e-newsletter is not quite as simple as she first thought. But having just published her third quarterly edition, she believes that after an initial misstep she now has a successful marketing tool.
• Incubators provide strong foundation for business plan competition success. A systematic analysis is uncovering the critical role incubators appear to be playing in the ability of start-ups to win business plan competitions.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 5, May 2011

• Video a ‘powerful marketing tool’ for IP marketing. If you’re not already using video to market your IP you should strongly consider it.
• Changes in approach needed for marketing software, copyright licenses. While software, multi-media and copyright licensing are viable opportunities, most do not hold the financial “home run” potential of blockbuster drugs. The fact that they may be continually updated and re-marketed give them longer term potential, which in turn dictates a different marketing approach and a more complex relationship with faculty.
• Willing clients, savvy media relations approach spell PR success. Not many tech transfer media relations campaigns can boast an article in the Wall Street Journal, but that’s exactly what the launch of the USC Stevens Institute achieved.
• U Florida grabs coat tails of national economic agenda to promote technology showcase. The University of Florida’s annual Technology Showcase, held on April 15th, was the fifth iteration of this annual event, but it may have had even a bit more significance than its predecessors given the current emphasis by federal and state agencies on innovation as a key to renewed growth and prosperity.
• Don’t fear social media for distribution of video marketing. Social media offers a number of effective vehicles for wide distribution of your marketing videos, but because it is still relatively new some TTOs view it with trepidation.
• Newly created center to market educational IP for U Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS), recently created by “friends” of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, plans to enhance the marketing and licensing of non-patentable — but often copyright-protected — IP created by faculty and staff.
• Quartet of universities wins NSF support for industry-academia co-op program. Four universities are pooling their research resources with industry and with each other through the formation of an Industry and University Cooperative Research Center.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 4, April 2011

• Taking care of business’ yields impressive PR results for BYU. The headline of the Business Week article read: “Brigham Young’s Entrepreneur Factory;” the upshot of the story was that despite a relatively modest research budget, BYU has been able to play with the tech transfer “big boys” when it comes to start-ups.
• Political campaigns and IP marketing: Not-so strange bedfellows. IP marketers rarely, if ever, think of themselves as politicians, and it’s fair to say that politicians never think of themselves as IP marketers. Yet there is much that tech transfer professionals can learn about marketing from political campaigns.
• “Scout” program helps UVA’s outreach to well-funded researchers. The UVA Patent Foundation (UVAPF) developed a program several years ago to  identify and reach out specifically to faculty members working under large grants who had not had much interaction with the foundation. While it is difficult to demonstrate a definitive link between the program and increased disclosures, Miette H. Michie, MS, executive director and CEO of the UVAPF, is convinced it has been a success.
• Nation’s economic agenda puts additional focus on UF’s technology showcase. The University of Florida’s annual Technology Showcase, held on April 15th, was the fifth iteration of this annual event, but it may have had even a bit more significance than its predecessors given the current emphasis by federal and state agencies on innovation as a key to renewed growth and prosperity. In fact, UF acknowledged as much in the opening sentence of a news release previewing the event: “As university research drives entrepreneurship and innovation to the forefront of the nation’s economic agenda, it’s an exciting year for . . .  ‘A Celebration of Innovation.’”
• Marketing “double-whammy” formally introduces young TTO to its community. The fledgling Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) at Boise State University had its formal “coming out” party in March — which featured the integration of what are often two distinct marketing vehicles, according to director Mary Givens.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 3, March 2011

• TTO mixing ‘aggression’ and flexibility in its marketing approach. Howard Grimes, dean of research and graduate studies at Washington State University, says his university is “aggressive” in its approach to marketing IP, but flexibility is an equally important component of what he considers to be WSU’s unique approach.
• Market-specific e-newsletter reels in potential licensees. The University of Virginia Patent Foundation has taken targeted marketing to a new level, launching an e-newsletter aimed at a single group of potential licensees – and it seems to be paying off.
• U Manchester ‘CEs’ pursue wide variety of approaches to boost disclosures. The University of Manchester (UK) had a very successful 2009-2010 when it came to generating faculty disclosures; from July 2009 to July 2010 disclosures rose 20% to 342 — the first time the university had seen that figure exceed 300.
• Tech transfer students hit ‘home run,’ forging deal with Lockheed. In its very first semester, the new tech transfer course for MBA students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has yielded a business case that secured a $200,000 investment from Lockheed Martin.
• ‘Transformed’ TTO seeks to up disclosures, improve IP evaluation. The word “transformation” is sometimes used as much for effect as it is to accurately depict just how much an organization is changing, but at Oregon State University the newly named Office for Commercialization and Corporate Development is a clear departure from its predecessor.
• Blog site provides new marketing outlet for universities. A growing number of universities have come to recognize the marketing value of blogs, but not all of them have the staff or the time required to launch a blog and keep it fresh. In Boston, however, it’s no longer necessary for universities to create their own blog in order to post about their latest activities and share them with the innovation community.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 2, February 2011

• Licensing success story illustrates keys to cementing industry-university partnership. Tech transfer offices spend a good deal of time evaluating technologies and determining their market potential, but it’s important to keep in mind that a good technology alone does not guarantee that your marketing efforts will be successful.
• Does licensing app auger new marketing opportunities for TTOs? In a move that helps forge a new IP marketing frontier, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched a smart phone app to help market its technologies.
• For Northwestern TTO, blockbuster drug is a double edged sword. Every TTO would love to have a blockbuster drug like Lyrica, the pain reliever for patients suffering from neuropathic pain developed by researchers at Northwestern University. From a marketing perspective, such a “home run” can be used effectively to inspire other inventors — and Northwestern is doing just that.
• Guest Commentary: Don’t let passion for your IP stand in the way of a good business deal.
• Looking for an industry partner? Beware the “know-it-all” inventor. There are a number of errors that universities commonly make that can “turn off” a potential industrial partner.
• TTO scours campus in search of new IP in the form of faculty-developed apps. Calling it “a significant untapped market,” Lesley Millar, director of the Office of Technology Management at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, says her office “is trying to reach out to developers and programmers on campus” to enlist their help in widening the OTM’s mobile marketing footprint.
• Rutgers looks to cash in on new CEO-in-Residence program. When Rutgers University set out to create its recently launched CEO-in-Residence program, the key players knew it made sense to learn from similar programs that had already been successful. On the other hand, it was also important that the program be “very much a Rutgers model.”

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 4, No. 1 (pp 1-12) January 2011

• U of Glasgow making IP freely available to businesses, others. There may still be no such thing as a free lunch, but there is definitely such a thing as free IP, thanks to the University of Glasgow.
• Incentives for marketing staff help generate licensing success. In January 2010 the National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization (NISTAC) began marketing the IP of Wichita State University, and recently an agreement was reached on the out-licensing of a technology that was part of the initial group of four or five technologies that NISTAC targeted. Kent Glasscock, president of NISTAC, says it marks the very first royalty-bearing license in Wichita State history.
• OhioHealth requires no IP ownership stake from its inventors. Since its inception, the commercialization office of the OhioHealth Research & Innovation Institute has taken a unique approach to its relationships with inventors: It does not require them to give OhioHealth an ownership stake in their IP.
• TTO interns at UVA given wide range of responsibilities. The internships offered by the UVA Patent Foundation in Charlottesville, VA, give participants a leg up in their ultimate search for permanent positions in tech transfer by providing an opportunity to experience the entire spectrum of marketing activity.
• Entire TTO staff meets with inventors at weekly ‘open house.’ When faculty members or students show up at the Friday “open house” hosted by the TTO of George Mason University, they don’t just meet with a single licensing representative; they meet with all of them.
• Is crowdsouring a viable alternative for university TTOs? A newly launched website, myheureka.com, claims to “turn the whole system upside down” when it comes to marketing IP. It offers members (membership is free of charge) the opportunity to “enter ideas,” “search ideas,” and “rate ideas.” It is one example, observers say, of how crowdsourcing has found its way into the marketing of IP.
• Mini-ad accompanies e-mails, other vehicles to create awareness.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 12 (pp 133-144) December 2010

• Grasp ‘long tail’ concept to improve portfolio-wide marketing. Just as e-commerce has in some cases left “bricks and mortar” retailing in the dust, other industries have also adopted marketing models that look and feel more like Amazon.com than a department store. But in many cases, TTOs are still using the “bricks and mortar” approach to marketing their IP.
• Low-touch initiatives enhance Columbia’s faculty outreach efforts. When you have a community of about 10,000 individuals, internal marketing presents a unique challenge. At Columbia Technology Ventures, extensive faculty outreach has been enhanced with the implementation of a number of “low-touch” initiatives.
• Outreach to alumni bearing fruit for IP marketers. Professionals who are responsible for marketing the IP coming out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have recently turned their attention to the Alumni Association, and they say that move is already paying off.
• Slidecasts offer less costly marketing vehicle when videos don’t fit in the budget. These days it often takes a good dose of creativity to overcome budget limitations, and the OTM at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign has done just that, creating slidecasts to promote its technologies using original background music composed by a student and soliciting creative advice from a professor to maximize their impact.
• Continual ‘tweaking’ makes lecture series an ongoing success. Many TTOs have launched lecture series for researchers and the university community at large as a means of educating them about the tech transfer office and strengthening bonds between them. Such programs are only as effective, however, as your ability to continually draw attendees.
• National lab creates search engine to meet needs of researchers. One of the ways in which a university or laboratory can strengthen relationships with its researchers is by providing services that make their work easier and more effective. The Idaho National Laboratory has done just that with the creation of NEEDLE, a new search engine for researchers.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 11 (pp 121-132) November 2010

• TTO finds many marketing uses for ‘lowly’ Excel. In these days of smart phones, Kindles, and iPads, a ‘mere’ Excel spreadsheet may seem so yesterday, but the OTT at The Rockefeller University continues to use an Excel-based spreadsheet system quite effectively.
  
• Cutting your marketing losses: it’s an art, not a science, say experts. Okay, so you targeted 100 attendees at a special event, and your turnout was only 75; was the event a failure? Do you try something new next year? Your goal for disclosures last year was 65, but you received 60; is it time to re-examine your internal marketing tactics?
• Tulane TTO outsources marketing for select technologies. The Office of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Development at Tulane University has never outsourced the marketing or licensing of any of its technologies — until now.
• NASA is seeking “no-cost” assistance with IP marketing. In the PR world they call it “Pay for Play.” In the legal world they call it “contingency fees.” Real estate brokers do it all the time. “It” is an arrangement whereby the service provider only gets paid if the client succeeds.
• Guest Commentary: Attending Departmental Research Retreats: A Great Internal Marketing Tool.
• Seminar series outreach effort brings new blood into TTO. When people hear the word “seminar,” they usually think “education,” but Lisa Kuuttila, President and CEO of STC.UNM (STC), a nonprofit corporation owned by the University of New Mexico that is responsible for licensing UNM technology, also thinks “outreach.”
• Research magazine succeeds as print marketing tool, moving online next. Andrea Gibson, director of research communications at Ohio University, Athens, OH, says her bi-annual magazine Perspectives has proven to be an effective tool for marketing to both internal and external audiences. Now, she’s looking to extend that reach through a presence online.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 10 (pp 109-120) October 2010

• Marketing metrics: one size definitely does not fit all. While there are certainly some common principles you should follow when establishing marketing metrics, experts agree that in the end your processes must be customized to the needs and characteristics of your individual office.
• Harvard ‘Accelerator Fund’ enhances marketing of early-stage IP. Harvard University’s Technology Development Accelerator Fund, established to help early-stage technologies cross the infamous “Valley of Death,” has also made them more marketable.
• ‘Innovation teams’ determine potential of university’s IP. Determining which of your university’s innovations is ‘ready for prime time,’ which requires some more work, and which has limited potential is always a complex and challenging process for TTOs. To bring some structure and direction to the process, Boise State University’s Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) has come up with a program called ‘Innovation Teams.’
• TTO provides inventor resources needed to launch new company. Sometimes tech transfer offices offer the most help to start-ups not so much through direct assistance but by linking up the innovator with the resources he needs to help get his firm off the ground.
• On-campus resources save IP marketers both time and money. In these days of budget cuts and reduced revenues, IP marketers are having their creativity put to the test when it comes to finding the money needed for projects and special events. However, say observers, tapping into the wealth of no-cost and low-cost resources available right on campus can provide a significant boost.
• Irish university expands spinout focus region-wide. The University of Limerick is seeking to increase the number of spinouts not only from its own campus but from around the region through its ‘Venture Programme,’ while at the same time preparing potential ‘homes’ for the nascent companies by building a new incubator on campus.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 9 (pp 97-108) September 2010

• Hybrid incubation models offer start-ups exposure to mentors, resources. Gabriella Draney in Dallas calls her program, Tech Wildcatters, a “mentorship-driven micro-seed fund and start-up accelerator.” Rob Wuebker, PhD, faculty advisor for “The Foundry” at the University of Utah, calls his a “quasi-incubator.” Whatever name you give them, both are demonstrations that while one-day boot camps and start-up competitions are nice, budding entrepreneurs need help from many resources in the IP commercialization ecosystem to give them the greatest chance for success.
• Video clips help TTO reach out to 4,000 researchers. How do you “reach out and touch” your faculty members when they number about 4,000? The TTO at the University of Manchester in the U.K. has tackled this daunting task with the aid of new media — more specifically, a series of video clips that are accessible on a website called the IP Awareness Resource.
  
• Baylor TTO’s 25th anniversary serves as marketing hook. Celebrating a 25th anniversary is an impressive milestone for a tech transfer office, but as the Baylor Licensing Group at the Baylor College of Medicine has discovered, it can also serve as the foundation of an effective marketing effort.
• UC merges offices for more cohesive commercialization effort. A number of universities have entrepreneurship programs or departments that are separate and distinct from their TTO, but the University of Cincinnati has apparently decided that when it comes to marketing IP, “one head is better than two.”
• ‘Laid back’ TTO awareness event draws 500 attendees. Any number of TTOs hold special events to recognize faculty inventors, to bring together innovators and potential backers or partners, or sometimes to simply raise awareness of their activities and successes. But it’s safe to say that a recent event sponsored by the  Boston University Office of Technology Development (OTD) bore little resemblance to most of them.
• ‘Featured Innovators’ spice up UCSD’s TTO website.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 8 (pp 85-96) August 2010

• TTO, client collaborate to create unique new licensing model. “The customer is always right.” It sounds a bit trite and shop-worn, but there’s no doubt that addressing customers’ concerns holds the key to success for any sales or marketing effort. It’s also true that some TTOs still have a lot to learn when it comes to speaking the language of business.
• U of Maryland YouTube channel touts inventions and researchers. The Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP) at the University of Maryland has launched a YouTube channel to increase interest in its inventors and inventions.
• ‘Follow-up’ release shows marketer’s job is never done. Some IP marketers may believe their job is done when they have successfully teamed up their inventor with a licensee.
• Focus groups help guide redesign of TTO website. The Indiana University Research & Technology Corp. (IURTC) used a series of focus groups with key stakeholders to help determine the look and feel of its new website, created to bring with it “a user-friendly, one-stop shop designed to empower and connect inventors, entrepreneurs and investors.”
  
• TTO very selective in duties assigned to graduate interns. Not all interns are created equal, notes Kathryn Atchison, DDS, MPH, vice provost of intellectual property and industry relations, and associate vice chancellor for research at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Accordingly, says Atchison, she limits the tasks assigned to her non-paid interns — and marketing fits like a glove.
• Federal lab’s marketing approach holds lessons for academic TTOs. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has a different approach to getting its technology to market than most universities — which also puts a greater responsibility on its inventors, says Rob Griesbach, PhD, deputy assistant administrator for technology transfer.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 7 (pp 73-84) July 2010

• ‘Contrarian’ approach at Caltech generates more disclosures. “We have a contrarian approach to tech transfer compared to many TTOs,” asserts Larry Gilbert, senior director of the Caltech Office of Technology Transfer. “We believe in market pull, and that the vast majority of licensing occurs as a consequence of what our faculty does.”
• Research parks play increasingly critical role in IP marketing for UM system. While the University of Missouri system has been actively developing research parks for some 20 years, activity has accelerated rapidly in the past few years.
• Tune up your website to improve results of social media marketing. Social media may be all the rage, and it certainly opens up a world of new opportunities for getting your message out, but it’s unwise to dive into social media marketing without first making sure your website is strong enough to support those efforts.
• Wellspring purchases and repositions Flintbox as more than an IP exchange. Wellspring Worldwide, a software and services company that “seeks to bridge the gap between research and ideas and final products,” has acquired and re-launched Flintbox, an application that in its new, expanded format is designed to enable the innovation community to share technologies, distribute new materials and software, and collaborate on research projects.
• In-house GA Tech innovation institute expands it horizons, solicits outside clients. Necessity may be more than just the mother of invention; it appears to have been the driving force behind a commercialization group serving the Georgia Institute of Technology to begin offering consulting services on incubator development to outside clients.
• Innovation task force uses event to raise awareness of report’s recommendations. Task for reports are, as they say, a dime a dozen. This is not to diminish their importance, but rather to acknowledge a fact — which makes it that much more difficult to get one report to stand out among the others.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 6 (pp 61-72) June 2010

• Chicago-area institutions join forces for BIO presentation. Sponsoring a booth at a major industry meeting can be extremely beneficial for a tech transfer office; it can also be quite expensive. At this year’s BIO International Convention in Chicago, six local research institutions found a way of reaping all the benefits of exposure while paring down the costs: they pooled their resources to sponsor a joint booth.
• UMich adds video links to news releases for greater impact. For select technologies, the University of Michigan’s news service has begun including links to videos with its press releases. The tactic is getting the innovations more attention with the media, the public, the local community, and potential licensees.
  
• TTOs go beyond technology marketing with Facebook pages. If you visit the Facebook pages of the University of Louisville Office of Technology Transfer and the University of Virginia Patent Foundation, you’ll see the typical postings about new inventions, showcases and other events, awards and honors — but you’ll see a lot more than that.
• Hopkins’ nano institute ‘repurposes’ meeting program into slick magazine. When attendees arrived at the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology’s (INBT) fourth annual symposium on April 29th, they received the first edition of NanoBio Magazine, a slick 32-page four-color publication, which served as both the symposium program and as a vehicle for highlighting some of INBT’s research and other activities.
• Hospital researchers try to “heal” themselves through marketing event. IP marketing professionals reading about the University of Cincinnati (UC) Health University Hospital Research Week would be forgiven for assuming this was an undertaking of the UC tech transfer operation — especially considering the IP marketing activities of its sister organization, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. In this case, however, they’d be wrong.
• Guest Column: Take a “rifle” approach to enhance the impact of technology showcases.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 5 (pp 49-60) May 2010

• How low can you go? ‘Twitpitch’ limit is 140 characters. First came the elevator pitch, then the ‘escalator’ pitch, and now, the ‘Twitpitch.’
• Outside marketing assistance makes tech commercialization bootcamp a snap. Richard Magid, PhD, vice president of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, determined early on that his first commercialization boot camp was not going to suffer from ‘rookie mistakes.’
• Expert networks enhance TTOs’ ability to assess and market new technologies. Identifying, targeting and enlisting the help of a network of experts both inside and outside your university community can be an effective strategy for enhancing your IP marketing activities.
• SIU tries building better ‘mousetrap’ for entrepreneur training. Many universities sponsor showcases to give inventors the opportunity to present their technologies to potential investors and partners. A growing number also sponsor courses on entrepreneurism to prepare would-be start-up leaders for the real world. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale has taken an approach that combines both.
• ‘Turnkey marketing department’ being offered to TTOs. Management consulting firm Lassen Scientific, Inc., is launching a new service called “Technology Marketing Department,” designed to significantly increase the marketability of clients’ technologies while concurrently speeding up the commercialization process.
• Networking holds the key to successful marketing, say experts. “We do a lousy, lousy job of marketing in this industry; it’s one of the worst things we do,” R. Page Heller of Hopes Creek Consulting told a group of attendees at a session during the AUTM 2010 meeting.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 4 (pp 37-48) April 2010

• Now more than ever, inreach can be critical to TTO success. In the wake of the unflattering light cast on university commercialization efforts by the recent Kauffman proposal, it’s more important than ever for TTOs to market their accomplishments aggressively.
• UMinn solves its own marketing problem with e-commerce app that optimizes searches for technology. Several years ago the tech transfer office at the University of Minnesota was looking to solve a marketing problem; none of the available IP aggregator sites was able to fulfill their particular requirements. So they set out to create their own solution, and in the process created a product for which there appears to be a significant potential market.
• ERM is enhancing IP marketing Efforts at U of Missouri. A recently launched electronic records management system is helping the University of Missouri system improve the efficiency and coordination of its portfolio management efforts.
• Australian organization’s IP is playing ‘David’ to Microsoft’s ‘Goliath.’ They may not have a budget or a brand to match Microsoft, but The Smart Services Co-operative Research Centre is using creativity, smart marketing and the leveraging power of digital technology to wage what they hope will be a successful battle for market share.
  
• Louisiana takes best practice approach to building innovation ecosystem. Louisiana State University has joined with a who’s who of regional and national players in the innovation game, who are taking a best practice approach to building a more vigorous innovation ecosystem in the region.
  

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 3 (pp 25-36) March 2010

• IP mining events increase disclosures, improve branding. An IP mining approach called the Innovation Discovery Process, developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division and the University of Southern Indiana’s Center for Applied Research, has resulted in both increased disclosures and a clearer understanding on the part of potential licensees and partners of what NSWC Crane is and does.
• U of Texas-Austin dives into video marketing to promote TTO and its technologies. “One of the keys to a successful video is approaching it with a real strategy or a certain purpose, and thinking that strategy out beforehand,” says Betsy Merrick, associate director of  Marketing/Public Relations in the OTC at The University of Texas at Austin. Merrick practiced what she preaches with the creation of the “OTC Overview” video, which is currently up on YouTube.
• SUNY/Japan incubator deal is payoff of relationship-building. The State University of New York (SUNY) has achieved a significant marketing coup by establishing a formal link between a Japanese consortium of 10 universities and its newly opened SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator. But if you’re thinking about duplicating their success, be prepared to dedicate 35 years to laying the groundwork — because that’s exactly what SUNY has done.
• Corporate relations expert seeks to make U of Arizona more accessible to businesses. Many universities have begun to recognize the importance of learning “corporate speak,” but few have gone as far as The University of Arizona; they have created a full-time position specifically to help strengthen relationships with the business community.
• Collaboration is the name of the game for Michigan TTOs. Several universities in Michigan are benefitting from membership in a collaborative organization called the University Research Corridor.
• Student-run venture fund uses internal, external marketing. BR Ventures, a VC fund run out of The Johnson School of Business at Cornell University, is unique in a number of ways.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 2 (pp 13-24) February 2010

• UT uses outside firm to counsel its start-up inventors. One of the most effective strategies in selecting an outside consulting firm is to study what they’ve done for similar organizations, and the University of Tennessee Research Foundation only had to look a few miles down the road to Oak Ridge to confirm its decision to retain the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth to counsel its faculty members on start-up formation.
• Hopkins schools its faculty in marketing their inventions. An alliance of Johns Hopkins collaborators, supporters, and staff is seeking to give its faculty inventors a leg up in the marketplace with a training program on creating effective marketing pitches to attract potential investors.
• UC Merced touts inventions, inventors with new catalog. The Office of Technology Transfer at the University of California, Merced is seeking to reach a variety of internal and external audiences through a new publication called “Inventions of the Research Enterprise.”
• Competition includes student crash course in IP marketing. While the numerous student innovation competitions held around the world all have their distinct styles and structures, most involve the students arriving at the competition with their presentations already in hand. At the annual Biotechnology YES competition, however, the approach is quite different: The students spend several days learning about marketing from industry experts before they make their presentations.
• Blog helps consultant promote clients’ IP, market its expertise. While many TTOs are still getting their feet wet in the world of blogging, IP and technology management services firm Fuentek, LLC, has developed a sophisticated blog that’s enabling it to both market clients’ technologies and enhance its own reputation for IP marketing and management expertise.
• Puerto Rico embarks on two-fold strategy for marketing IP. One of Puerto Rico’s leading advocates for the promotion of its university research candidly admits that the island’s university system has had two significant weaknesses that have kept it from achieving the success that the quality of its research merits.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 3, No. 1 (pp 112) January 2010

• Business exec turned TTO leader brings bottom-line orientation — and gets results. Jay Schrankler, executive director of the Office for Technology Commercialization at the University of Minnesota, came to UMinn from a Fortune 500 company — and it shows.
• “Pipeline overviews” help market IP to investors, potential licensees. One of the most effective marketing vehicles being used by the TTO at the University of Colorado is a collateral piece they call their “pipeline overview.” The overview gives potential investors and partners a status update on current technologies.
• WARF updates technology summaries to reach wider audiences. You’d think that a TTO recognized as a leader in the field might not feel the need to revamp an entire segment of its marketing strategy, but that’s exactly what the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) did recently when it revamped its technology summaries.
• TTO exec says widely used rankings can be deceiving. TTOs with high rankings from AUTM or other organizations will rightfully use those high marks as part of their overall marketing strategy. However, such numbers can be deceiving.
• Marketing tactics help generate stimulus funds. At last year’s AUTM meeting, several attendees predicted that government stimulus funds would create a windfall for universities seeking to finance research projects, and for a number of institutions that prediction has come true.
• Four common mistakes cited as impeding successful marketing of IP. “The value of your IP is not ultimately determined by the brilliance of your science; the value of your IP is determined by what the market will pay for it — and the more leveraged value you can create from your core IP, the more the market will pay,” asserts serial entrepreneur Michael R. Drapp.
• While technology advances, characterization of IP remains key. Even the technological whizzes that devise and market newer and better ways to support TTO marketing efforts recognize that some things never change when it comes to effective IP marketing.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 12 (pp 133-144) December 2009

• Atypical licensing approach leads to rapid exposure of important health IP. How did IP developed at the Emory School of Medicine end up on a website sponsored by Microsoft? The key players say it was a combination of being in the right place at the right time, and taking a creative approach to licensing.
• Public/private initiative seeks to bridge the IP ‘Valley of Death.’ The BioAccelerate NYC Prize, billed in its announcement as “the first citywide competition targeting commercialization of the extensive biomedical research conducted at universities and research institutions in New York City,” has been launched by The New York City Investment Fund and the New York Economic Development Corporation.
• Communication course shows science students how to pitch their technology. IP marketers are made, not born. . . . At least that’s the concept behind a course in communication skills being given to students at the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.
• Internal marketing efforts pay off in disclosures for Louisiana Tech. Like most sales undertakings, the marketing of IP is a “numbers” game; the more technology you market (assuming you have vetted it properly), the greater your chances of success. The starting point for boosting those numbers is invention disclosures, and Richard Kordal, PhD, director of the Louisiana Tech Department of Intellectual Property & Commercialization, says he’s found several effective internal marketing strategies that have helped open the floodgates.
• UW-Madison alum tells would-be entrepreneurs how it’s done. Who better to tell future entrepreneurs how to sell their ideas and bring them to market than a serial entrepreneur who’s “been there, done that?”
• Universities building web-based network to link researchers. A consortium of universities has joined forces to create what is envisioned as a nationwide — and ultimately worldwide — network to link university researchers. Such a network, they believe, will enhance opportunities for collaboration, improve the chances of obtaining grants, and open up additional commercialization pathways.

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 11 (pp 121-132) November 2009

• New YouTube channel helps TTOs take a more targeted marketing approach. Finding and targeting the right audiences is one of the most critical processes in any marketing endeavour, and a new channel on YouTube has just made the job a bit easier for TTOs
• Faculty incentive program leads to growth in external funding. An internal marketing program comprised of a series of tiered incentives to encourage faculty to increase grant proposals has resulted in a record level of external funding for Ball State University
• ‘Entrepalooza’ exposes students to ins and outs of creating a business. Even the catchy name, a play on “Lollapalooza” and other modern rock festivals, is geared toward an audience of students. And after 10 years of drawing business-oriented students to their event, the sponsors of ‘Entrepalooza’ hope they’ve enabled many of them to pack a more powerful punch as they seek to launch their start-ups
• Guest Commentary: Disciplined use of an IP management database enhances marketing efforts
• ORNL competition seeks to translate research to market. Universities across the country sponsor a wide range of technology showcases with an equally wide range of goals including encouraging research, attracting potential partners or licensees, and giving young entrepreneurs the tools they need to succeed. National laboratories, it seems, are not all that different
• Venture Challenge winner learns valuable lessons. A member of last year’s winning team at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Global Venture Challenge says he learned valuable lessons about how to make a business case for his technology
• G 20 meet means media opportunity for universities. A prestigious international meeting such as the recent G 20 summit in Pittsburgh means one thing to marketing professionals: Lots of media. In anticipation of this influx, three local institutions joined forces to sponsor media tours aimed at gaining exposure for the contributions their research efforts have made to the Pittsburgh economy

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 10 (pp 109-120) October 2009

• IP communications: Don’t shy away from telling your story. While communications strategies are widely recognized by TTOs as an important foundation for their marketing campaigns, some executives may not be conveying all of the benefits their IP assets have to offer ……… p. 109
• U of Missouri matches marketing specialists with IP spaces. The University of Missouri system is enhancing its IP marketing efforts with the hiring of what it hopes will be the first of several marketing specialists dedicated to specific groups of technology spaces ……… p. 109
• U of Illinois benchmarks its way to improvement of IP marketing. Recognizing a disconnect between the strength of its IP and the results of commercialization efforts, the TTO at the University of Illinois-Urbana is using benchmarking and comparisons of best practices at other tech transfer offices to enhance its marketing and get more licenses signed ……… p. 110
• Tips from the Field. Creating a simple, effective blog for your TTO ……… p. 111
• State innovation agency’s web site offers useful model for TTOs. The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, a state agency, was established to foster innovation in existing and developing businesses, support basic and applied research, facilitate technology transfer, and provide seed capital for innovative firms and their products. Though it is not a TTO per se, the center’s recent revamp of its website — a key part of its marketing and outreach — offers a useful model for university technology managers ……… p. 116
• OU hires outside firm to help spur commercialization. If sporadic interaction with an outside technology commercialization firm has been good for its IP marketing efforts, reasoned the University of Oklahoma Office of Technology Development, then more regular interaction would be even better. That’s why OU recently signed a collaborative agreement with i2e, Inc., a private not-for-profit Oklahoma corporation that has worked with a number of research institutions in the state to enhance technology transfer and commercialization, particularly with start-ups ……… p. 118

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 9 (pp 97-108) September 2009

• Case Western exec: Don’t manage your IP — market it. Focusing on marketing IP — as opposed to managing it — is the key to maximizing commercialization opportunities for university TTOs, says Mark E. Coticchia, vice president of Case Western Reserve University’s Office of Research and Technology Management ……… p. 97
• ‘Speed-dating’ event matches inventors with potential partners. Speed-dating, it appears, is not reserved for singles anxious to check out potential mates. A recent event at the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins introduced 12 faculty members to 13 entrepreneurs in hopes of telescoping the time it takes for inventors to find partners – and to spread the word that Hopkins is very much in the start-up business ……… p. 97
• U of Kentucky launches privately-funded firm to help clinicians commercialize inventions. A privately funded firm called Therix Medical has been established by the University of Kentucky to help University of Kentucky HealthCare clinicians turn their ideas into products. Funds are currently being solicited for the newly formed company, which is expected to establish an experienced business team to work with clinicians in prototype development, regulatory assessment, financial modeling, and IP ……… p. 98
• At the CDC, tech transfer is all about relationships. Picture this: You’re standing in your booth during a major trade show and one of your researchers approaches with a gentleman in tow. “I’d like you to meet Mr. ‘X,’” he says. “He may be interested in licensing the potential vaccine I’m developing” ……… p. 99
• Your ‘carrot’ licenses may be ‘stick’ licenses in disguise. Alexander Poltorak, PhD, CEO of General Patent Corporation International, says viewing your deals only as “carrot” licenses, as opposed to their potential also as “sticks,” may limit the effectiveness of your overall licensing efforts ……… p. 105
• Attorney organizes ‘summit’ to help spin out U of Hawaii IP. Frustrated by the slow pace of commercialization from the University of Hawaii, a local IP attorney has taken the lead on jump-starting spinout activity there ……… p. 106

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 8 (pp 85-96) August 2009

• Oregon universities seek to establish a collective brand. Four of Oregon’s leading research universities have launched a new website to promote interaction between industry and academia. But the site, Innovate Collaborate Oregon, is more than an isolated collaboration; it is but one phase of a plan the universities have developed to create a collective brand ……… p. 85
• UT-Austin collaborates with other organizations to enhance IP exposure. After a series of increasingly successful annual conferences called “Ready to Commercialize,” which featured presentations by faculty inventors and talks by industry leaders, the OTT at the University of Texas-Austin decided to scale back and hold their conference every other year, using the off years to collaborate with other organizations ……… p. 85
• Marketing on Facebook: How to set up a fan page for your TTO. As university technology transfer offices face shrinking budgets and their potential clients gravitate towards social media, Facebook fan pages offer a powerful, no-cost way to market technologies and services ……… p. 86
• Incubator run by UMich students shows there’s strength in numbers. A basement in downtown Ann Arbor, MI, has become the temporary home of 11 small start-ups and 30 student entrepreneurs from the University of Michigan in a high-energy community called TechArb. They share space, equipment, and ideas, and are living proof, according to the student entrepreneur whose vision it was, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts ……… p. 93
• ‘Valorisation’ firms enhance marketability of Canadian IP. Universities in the U.S. have access to any number of outside organizations that can help them market their IP and move technologies closer to commercialization; these vendors are independent organizations that are free to provide their services to any number of clients. In Canada, however, a small number of universities are served by affiliated organizations that perform many of the same functions, called “societies de valorisation universitaires” ……… 94

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 7 (pp 73-84) July 2009

• Pre-seed workshops help inventors, TTOs make ‘go/no-go’ decisions. Of all the decisions a TTO executive has to make, the “go/no-go” decision on new technologies is one of the most difficult. Marnie LaVigne, PhD, director of business development for the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, a University of Buffalo research center, says she has made that process a bit easier by sponsoring a series of “Pre-Seed Workshops” for inventors ……… p. 73
• TTO nurtures inventors, technology into the start-up phase. EXCMR, Ltd., a Columbus, OH-based start-up spun out of The Ohio State University, has achieved its current status — it’s readying the release of its technology to hospitals and patients — not only through the creativity of its inventors, but thanks to the marketing guidance the inventors received from the university’s Technology Licensing and Commercialization Office ……… p. 73
• Successful media relations strategy relies heavily on e-mail promotion. Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd., the leading tech transfer company in Singapore, employs a wide array of marketing strategies to spread the word about its activities. But perhaps its highest concentration of effort is in targeted media relations campaigns, reinforced by a steady flow of e-mail promotional pieces. This approach is clearly paying off, according to Boon Swan Foo, Exploit’s executive chairman. “Media coverage of news has been consistently high, and media attendance at events has also been consistently high,” he reports. “Exploit Tech has had more than 200 mentions in the media — broadcast, print and online — in the year 2008.” That ‘hit rate,’ he adds, should be even higher in 2009 based on year-to-date performance ……… p. 74
• Marketing joint projects goes more smoothly with a designated leader. A quick look at the list of recipients of $2.9 million in research funding through the inaugural Maryland Nanobiotechnology Research and Industry Competition grants program reveals some telling facts. First, of the 12 projects selected, eight involved the University of Maryland (UM) system. All of the eight UM winners involved collaborations with more than one institution. So the question naturally arises: When ongoing research involves crosses campus lines, how is the technology marketed? ……… p. 80
• Georgia university innovations featured on statewide IP marketing portal. A new collaborative project in Georgia is marketing IP developed in the state’s public and private universities on a single website, with an unmistakable goal in mind: To attract more businesses to the state ……… p. 81
• Program helps young entrepreneurs lay foundation for success. A collaborative a group of Canadian academic and economic development centers is launching a project next month at the University of Windsor aimed at helping young entrepreneurs conduct market research, investigate cross-border and online business issues, and prepare business plans for new ventures ……… p. 82

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 6 (pp 61-72) June 2009

• Faculty a critical part of assessment and triage process. “Technology transfer is about relationships . . . period,” says Chad Hardaway, MBA, JD, director of the IP office at the University of South Carolina. “We do not license technologies alone; we license people.” Too often, however, assessment and triage focuses only on value propositions, the state of the market, the strength of the competition, and other typical criteria. But Hardaway and other tech transfer veterans say its critical to also factor in the human element — particularly the inventor ……… p. 61
• Your alumni can provide “knowledge capital,” not just cash. When you hear the word “alumni” in tech transfer circles the next word that often comes to mind is “donation,” but leaders at Mississippi State believe such an approach can be short-sighted when it comes to the kinds of help they need to move their technologies forward – especially their start-ups. In recent events involving alumni, notes licensing associate Chase Kasper, MBA, “we’ve made it clear we’re not just looking for capital infusion, but for knowledge capital. We’re in the process of building some bridges in terms of matching technologies with appropriate industry experiences. We are not necessarily looking for an investment of money” ……… p. 61
• British tech transfer firm ‘tweets’ to spread the word about its activities. MRC Technology, the tech transfer and commercialization company for the prestigious Medical Research Council of the U.K., has begun using Twitter to boost its tech transfer and translational communications ……… p. 62
• Firm creates ‘pipeline’ of potential partners to gain efficiency in IP marketing. When clients of Foresight Science & Technology are looking to license their IP or find partners, the company often has a ready list of contacts to provide them thanks to a marketing initiative the Providence, RI-based company has developed called “Pipeline Partners.” Phyl Speser, JD, PhD, the CEO and founder of Foresight, describes it as an “internally developed and frequently updated network of companies interested in licensing or buying new technologies from Foresight customers.” The pipeline now numbers several hundred partners “and we’re constantly growing,” he says. It’s an idea TTOs may want to adapt as part of their own marketing operations ……… p. 63
• State legislators targeted in TTO’s ‘Posters in the Rotunda’ campaign. Universities target many different audiences as they seek to spread the word about their research — and for the University of Wisconsin System, that includes state senators and representatives. That’s exactly who UW was targeting recently with their sixth annual “Posters in the Rotunda” event ……… p. 68
• Tip of the Month: Communicate with PR office to avoid surprise publications, protect patentability ……… p. 69
• Custom-built IP management software enhances marketing for Yissum. A new IP management software system called TTM (Technology Transfer Management), recently installed at Yissum, the tech transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has made a dramatic difference in the company’s marketing efforts. And those efforts are considerable. Yissum-licensed IP accounts for well over over $1 billion in sales annually, and its own revenues topped $60 million in 2008 ……… p. 70

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 5 (pp 49-60) May 2009

• Experts provide guidance on enhancing the value of your TTO’s brand. The term ‘branding’ is still relatively new in tech transfer marketing circles, and as such carries an aura of sophistication and complexity that may intimidate some TTO executives into thinking they’re not yet ‘ready’ to undertake branding activity. But the truth of the matter, says James Zanewicz, JD, LLM, of the University of Louisville Office of Technology Transfer, is that “whether you realize it or not, you create your brand with everything you do every day.” ……… p. 49
• Is blogging the next marketing frontier for your TTO? Blogs have become an important part of the communication landscape for the younger generation and for the more creative and aggressive marketers on the Internet, but they have yet to catch fire as a new venue for IP marketing. “I did some research about a year ago and found only one TTO that had a blog — the University of Nebraska,” recalls Lindsay Polak, marketing/communication manager for the University of Colorado TTO in Boulder. Polak just launched her blog in mid-2008 ……… p. 49
• Purdue brings Indiana schools together in research database to enhance tech transfer. Sometimes ‘sharing the wealth’ with other universities can mean enhanced IP marketing opportunities for all. That’s certainly the hope at Purdue University, which has encouraged the expansion of its Purdue University Research Expertise (PURE) database to include other state institutions, namely Indiana University, Ball State University, and the University of Notre Dame. The database, now called The Indiana Database of Research of University Expertise (INDURE), enables visitors to the site to enter technology search words and discover the most active researchers in a given area (ranked in order of their actual accomplishments), and then ‘drill down’ for a listing of their publications and grants ……… p. 50
• Initial license agreement confirms value of industry-university collaboration model. A recently signed license agreement for an asthma drug has confirmed the value of a unique three-way collaboration. The licensed technology comes from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and the deal was negotiated by the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) with licensee Cumberland Emerging Technologies (CET). Under the agreement, CET — which is a joint initiative between Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Vanderbilt University, and the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation — is providing formulation, grant funding, regulatory and product development assistance in exchange for rights to commercialize the new technology ……… p. 56
• TTO posts videos for faculty members on YouTube, iTunes. It started as a simple faculty request, but it has evolved into a unique internal marketing strategy. If you go to the YouTube home page and type in “UOIT Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization,” you’ll be linked to a series of videos ‘starring’ Mike Szarka, PhD, manager of technology transfer & commercialization at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. The videos, a series of discussions on copyright issues, have also recently become available on iTunes ……… p. 59

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 4 (pp 37-48) April 2009

• Cornell creates inventor portal to address diverse faculty needs. Alan Paau, CLP, MBA, PhD, executive director and vice provost for technology transfer & economic development at Cornell University, knows that not all inventors are created equal; they have different levels of curiosity about the status of their inventions, different levels of involvement in commercialization efforts, and different senses of urgency about the pace of licensing and marketing activity. A desire to meet those diverse needs — and to serve faculty members at a level appropriate to their requirements — was a driving force behind the development of MyIP, a portal on the website of the Cornell Center for Technology Enterprise and Commercialization (CTEC) that continually updates information on patent status, licensing status and marketing status ……… p. 37
• Texas A&M tool assesses IP’s market potential, provides admin reporting mechanism. A tool called TechAssess, developed at Texas A&M, has proved to be an invaluable aide in determining the market potential of university IP, while at the same time providing an effective mechanism for communicating a clear progress report to administration ……… p. 37
• Faculty relations are top-of-mind concern for TTO executives. If you put a group of TTO and IP marketing executives together in a room and allowed them to vent about absolutely anything, what would emerge as their most nagging concern? The economy? More effective outreach to potential licensees? If you guessed gaining the cooperation and trust of faculty, you get a gold star. When AUTM decided to try something new at its 2009 Annual Meeting and host a free-for-all discussion at a “Marketing Town Hall Forum,” attendees came back time and again to the same thing: Improving relations with researchers ……… p. 38
• ‘Clemson Cluster’ event strengthens ties with licensees, incubators. An event held in February at the Clemson University Advanced Materials Research Laboratory to recognize technology-based companies in upstate South Carolina was just the first of many events designed to honor and support the ‘Clemson Cluster’ — 18 companies that have either licensed Clemson intellectual property or are located in university-affiliated incubation space ……… p. 39
• Small university TTO invests in full-time marketing director. Many large TTOs do not have a full-time marketing director, so what was the head of the small office at the University of Nevada thinking when he began a search for a director of intellectual property marketing and business development? More disclosures, better faculty relations, and more deals down the road ……… p. 45
• Decentralization of TTOs aids marketing efforts in university systems. About a dozen years ago the TTO at the University of Massachusetts generated only $200,000 in revenues; in recent years it has been ranked either second or third in New England with revenues between $35 million and $40 million — not bad when you keep company with such names as Harvard and MIT. Moving from a central tech transfer office to more local control on each system campus has been critical to success ……… p. 46

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 3 (pp 25-36) March 2009

• Three keys to successfully expanding tech transfer public relations efforts. Expanding your public relations efforts — and getting results — can be a difficult challenge for a tech transfer office. After all, PR is not often thought of as one of the prerequisite skills for TTO staff. As the Science and Technology Ventures (STV) office at Columbia University has found, it takes a coordinated effort on several fronts to produce a successful initiative. In their case, it involved three key components ……… p. 25
• Internal marketing helps spur start-up success at Johns Hopkins. In fiscal 2008 Johns Hopkins University launched 12 start-up companies — three times as many as the previous year, and more than twice as many as in any year this decade. Six of the 12 have been VC- or corporate-funded, and in aggregate the start-ups have raised more than $76 million in private investment ……… p. 25
• ‘StratComm’ lays the foundation for IP marketing success. It may not be the sexiest part of your IP marketing responsibilities, but it could be the most important: Experts agree that a solid strategic communications (“StratComm”) approach is an essential ingredient in any marketing success story ……… p. 26
• Consulting firm helps NASA develop two-pronged strategy for IP marketing. Nona Cheeks, MBA, Chief of the Innovative Partnerships Program for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, freely admits that IP strategy is not the forte of government agencies. That’s why in 2001 she started working with the technology consulting group, Fuentek, LLC. That partnership has proved beneficial not just for Cheeks and NASA, but for Fuentek as well — the firm became a NASA central contractor in late 2007 ……… p. 27
• Computer “grid” capacity helps university prof boost his invention’s marketability. Sometimes refining or augmenting an invention based on feedback from outside experts or even a sharp group of students can be a powerful marketing strategy, allowing you to fine-tune a technology so it better meets your prospect’s needs. That strategy played out recently at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where one scientist went back to the drawing board after receiving a marketing assessment from a multi-disciplinary team of graduate students at the U of California, Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative. Said the scientist: “This was a really great reality check; now we know what we have to do next if we want it to thrive” ……… p. 33
• Experience as intern helps TTO exec select ‘next generation’ of marketing staffers. Tari Suprapto, PhD, assistant director in The Rockefeller University Office of Technology Transfer, believes in “paying it forward.” Having started her tech transfer career as an intern at Rockefeller, she now leans on that experience to inform her decision-making as she chooses her own interns to assist with the department’s marketing efforts ……… p. 34

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 2 (pp 13-24) February 2009

• Lab tours enable marketing to wide range of audiences. A lab tour may not have the ‘sex appeal’ of some more creative marketing approaches, but it can be one of the most effective marketing vehicles in your arsenal — and it can be used to target a wide variety of audiences. Just ask Eileen M. Smith, associate director of the Media Convergence Laboratory at the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training in Orlando ……… p. 13
• Think beyond licensing when developing your marketing objectives. What do you want to accomplish with your IP marketing efforts? Naturally, you want those efforts to create a strong foundation for your commercialization endeavors and enhance your chances for landing more licenses. But if you limit your marketing approach to focus on only licensing deals, you may be missing valuable opportunities in other areas, argues Bruce Berman, CEO of New York-based Brody Berman Associates, Inc., a management consulting and communications firm focusing on technology, finance and professional services ……… p. 13
• Research lab taps MBAs at university for marketing help. TTOs at national laboratories face many of the same marketing challenges as those at universities — including being understaffed when it comes to marketing. Fortunately for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, it is located near a ready source of intellectual people power — the University of California, Berkeley. So in the fall of 2008 Cheryl Fragiadakis, head of the Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department at LBNL, formed a partnership with the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative, an interdisciplinary organization founded by MBA students at the UCB’s Haas School of Business, to help bring ‘cleantech’ innovations to market at a faster pace ……… p. 14
• Virtual incubator launches spinoffs, spurs creation of new university TTO. At a number of universities where there is a successful incubator program in place, that program was only developed after a successful track record had been established by the TTO. But in an interesting variation on the old “chicken and egg” theme, a successful incubator at the University of Texas at Dallas has not only led to the creation of more than one successful start-up, it has served as the foundation of the university’s first TTO — which in this case has proven to be a distinct advantage ……… p. 16
• Crowdsourcing: a new weapon in your IP marketing arsenal? While the concept of “crowdsourcing” has been around for several years and has been gaining popularity in the corporate and online communities, it has not caught on with IP marketers — and yet, it could be a natural ……… p. 20
• Outside firm can help a TTO ‘grow’ its marketing staff. The vast majority of TTOs lack the necessary resources to accomplish all of their marketing goals in-house, says Brigham Hyde, co-founder, president, and director of licensing for Boston-based Relay Technology Management, Inc., a biomedical technology transfer services firm. Since Relay is itself a start-up (it was founded in spring 2008), Hyde and his partner, David Greenwald, are betting the future of their fledgling company that they’re right ……… p. 22

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 2, No. 1 (pp 1-12) January 2009

• ASU unit invests in outsourced PR to make sure efforts ‘get it right.’ The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU), a partnership of ASU, the U.S. Army and private industry to advance the development and commercialization of flexible display technologies, has engaged an outside PR firm for the first time — and director Greg Raupp, PhD, is very clear on why the decision was made. “We have a philosophy that if you want to do it right, you’ve got to work with a professional” ……… p. 1
• MSU’s TTO team learning to become ‘knowledgeable sellers.’ Are you a “knowledgeable seller?” The tech transfer team at Michigan State University (MSU) is working hard to become just that, as they seek to repeat the “home runs” the university achieved in anti-cancer compounds in the late ‘70s and ‘80s — before it even had a formal tech transfer office. Since then, MSU has been relatively quiet in terms of commercializing its IP — that is, until the fall of 2007 when it made a major commitment to proactively market its inventions ……… p. 1
• UCF’s ‘Millionaires Club’ recognizes faculty for sponsored research funding. Here’s an internal marketing idea that makes so much sense it engenders a ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ moment: An annual event into which the most successful researchers of the year are inducted into a prestigious “Millionaires Club.” Recently, a record number of 32 researchers and their support staff from the Office of Research and Commercialization were inducted into the University of Central Florida Millionaires Club, which began in 2000 to celebrate the accomplishments of highly funded researchers ……… p. 2
• ‘Start-up Boot Camp’ helps ease fears, boost motivation among would-be faculty entrepreneurs. If starting your own company was easy, or free of risk, a lot more people would be doing it. But the truth is that fear of failure stops many potential entrepreneurs from taking that all-important first step ……… p. 3
• University enlists ‘competitors’ to build successful innovation expo. A collaborative effort among regional TTOs to showcase their technologies has demonstrated the wisdom of a “strength in numbers” approach when it comes to attracting potential licensees and investors ……… p. 4
• When is the right time to hire a PR firm, and what will it cost you? Not every TTO needs a PR firm — and not every time is the right time to retain one ……… p. 6
• Enlist your attorney to assist in IP marketing efforts. Marketing might not strike some as an integral part of an IP attorney’s job description, but Jason Haislmaier, JD, a partner in the Boulder, CO office of Holme Roberts & Owen LLP and co-chair of its IP, Technology and Media Group, begs to differ. “As a practical matter, there is potential for lawyers to play a role both in internal and external marketing,” Haislmaier asserts ……… p. 10
• Advice for inventors on making a pitch to the TTO. Sometimes successful IP marketing begins with an inventor convincing a skeptical TTO that his research has commercial potential. Jason Haislmaier, JD, a partner in the Boulder, CO office of the law firm Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, says he often helps inventors make such a pitch ……… p. 10

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 1, No. 4 (pp 49-64) December 2008

• Video marketing offers TTOs a high-impact way to cut through the clutter: It seems like a logical enough strategy: Create videos that highlight your most promising technologies, post them on your web site and disseminate them directly to key target audiences to intensify interest in your IP. The video format offers the ability to really showcase an invention’s capabilities and help promising IP stand out from the crowd. But the concept has not yet caught fire among university TTOs — and cost could be one of the obstacles ……… p. 49
• Inventor recognition programs an effective form of internal marketing. Some universities do it with lavish annual events, while others do it more modestly, but tech transfer professionals know just how important it is to regularly recognize inventors for their hard work and achievements ……… p. 49
• Social networking an effective way to reach more licensees, investors. Do you Twitter? Are you ‘LinkedIn’? Do you blog? If not, you may be missing out on countless opportunities to communicate with prospective investors and potential licensees. And while it hasn’t yet led directly to any deals, Stephen Fleming, director of the Commercialization Services Group at The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute in Atlanta, is convinced that social networking has become an important adjunct to his marketing efforts. “It’s early, but this is now mainstream — it’s not just teenagers anymore,” he says ……… p. 50
• TTO annual reports: A time-consuming but worthwhile marketing effort. Chances are your TTO does not produce an annual report; many tech transfer executives believe they are too costly to justify the benefits they produce. But those who do produce the reports believe they’re getting a positive return on their investment      p. 52
• Pre-event marketing builds traffic for trade show booths. A great deal of logistical planning goes into the preparation of a trade show booth, but you should spend just as much — if not more — time “pre-marketing” your presence at the event ……… p 58
• Tips from The Field: One size does not fit all when it comes to effective internal marketing strategies ……… p. 59
• Valuation tool offers cost-effective option for ‘limited’ assessment of IP assets. Global Technology Transfer Group, Inc., a Portland, OR-based patent asset management services firm, is making its internal valuation engine and transaction database available as a commercial product. The tool offers a quick way for TTOs to assess their IP portfolios ……… p. 61
• Commercialization firm focuses on start-up marketing. Founders and managers of university start-ups have a wide range of experience and expertise, but quite often that doesn’t include marketing. Recognizing that gap, Calgary-based University Technologies International, a leading IP commercialization firm, has incorporated marketing services as part of it’s newly developed “incubation engine” called IGNITE ……… p. 62

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 1, No. 3 (pp 33-48) November 2008

• Full-time TTO marketing director: Nice to have, or need to have? Many TTOs say they can’t afford a full-time marketing director, but given the licensing dollars such a position could help generate, you might want to revisit that assumption ……… p. 33
• Master the ‘art’ of media interviews to realize marketing benefits. To some TTO executives, sitting down with a reporter can be an unnerving prospect; for others, it may seem as natural as having a cup of coffee with a friend. But however you approach an interview, there is an art to obtaining the outcome you are looking for ……… p. 33
• Translate’ your marketing into the language of business. The languages spoken by inventors and business people are so different that IP marketing messages often get “lost in translation” ……… p. 34
• Reaching the next level: first come the people, then comes the marketing push. While Rice University has developed a well-earned reputation for research excellence, the administration recently decided it was time for the university’s 10-year-old Office of Technology Transfer to “move to the next level.” That move has begun with the hiring of a new tech transfer executive team, which in turn is now hiring licensing officers and implementing a marketing plan to spread the word about Rice ……… p. 36
• Alliance aggressively courts VCs. As the Office of Technology Transfer at Rice University looks to accelerate its IP marketing efforts, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is proving to be an invaluable partner ……… p. 36
• When hiring a marketing director, focus on skills. If you’re looking to hire a marketing director for your TTO, you’d ideally like to find someone who not only has marketing experience, but has some scientific knowledge in areas of technology where your university specializes. But if it’s a choice between marketing skills and technology expertise, say the experts, it’s really no contest — go for the marketing pro ……… p. 38
• The anatomy of a media training session. Exactly what goes on inside a media training session? ……… p. 40
• Marketing Tip of the Month: Get more out of your trade show booth investment using an interactive technology matrix ……… p. 43
• Aggressive marketing effort puts ‘Shoe Power’ invention front and center. From a catchy name (“Shoe Power”) to an in-depth evaluation and all-out awareness campaign, Louisiana Tech University is pulling out all the stops to find a path to market for a technology it believes has a bright future ……… p. 44
• Australian tech transfer firm succeeds with internal, external marketing one person at a time. It’s hard enough to market to external audiences, but how would you like to first have to compete against other firms for the right to even represent your university’s inventors? ……… p. 46

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 1, No. 2 (pp 17-32) October 2008

• Making a great ‘elevator’ pitch: Short, simple, and focused on benefits. In marketing circles it’s often referred to as the ‘elevator pitch’ — what you say to a potential licensee, investor, or partner when you’ve only got a few minutes (i.e., a brief elevator ride) in which to get your message across. Such an opportunity may present itself when a prospect stops by at your trade show booth, or when you spot the name tag of potential licensee you’ve been trying to get in touch with. It might even be the first few minutes of a more formally planned presentation, when the reality is you still only have a few minutes at most to grab the attention of your audience ……… p. 17
• ‘Kill package’ can help inventors understand why prospects say ‘no.’ Some IP marketing experts call it a ‘kill package;’ it’s a collection of communications with prospective licensees that includes e-mails and other correspondence explaining why those prospects have decided not to pursue commercialization for a particular invention. Such a turn-down can be emotional for an inventor, some of whom refuse to believe their idea is not of interest to everybody. This creates both an internal marketing challenge, and an opportunity, to help the inventor understand the “no” ……… p. 17
• TTO places product pipeline on the web to drive commercialization. If you visit the web site of Atlanta-based Emory University’s Office of Technology Transfer and click on “product pipeline,” you’d swear you were visiting the site of a big pharma company ……… p. 18
• TTO accesses network of 200,000 experts to enhance marketing. Often faced with a vast range of industries to target, one of the greatest marketing challenges for TTOs is developing the necessary expertise to accurately determine the potential of multiple inventions in myriad markets and identify the most likely potential licensees. No matter how skilled and knowledgeable, it’s virtually impossible for a single staff to possess that breadth of expertise in-house ……… p. 20
• Consultant helps TTO staff see with different eyes. It’s only been a few short months, but already the Columbia University’s Science and Technology Ventures office has learned to look at some technologies in different ways after consulting with outside experts ……… p. 25
• Legal Q&A: When does marketing hype cross the line into misrepresentation? ……… p. 26
• Tap into the marketing power of incubators, science parks. Science parks and incubators on or near university campuses offer a natural opportunity for extending your IP’s marketing reach. With start-ups born of university research and with a broad base of university talent upon which to draw, these facilities serve as a magnet for researchers and research-oriented companies, while providing a built-in launching pad to the marketplace ……… p. 27
• Get more out of your incubator. All of these facilities typically offer the basics, including space, reception, meeting space, mail service, shipping and receiving services, but some offer support and marketing assistance that goes well beyond the basics. Here are three examples ……… p. 28
• Give university start-ups a boost with marketing and PR support. Most TTO executives would be thrilled to have ten start-ups launched in a single fiscal year, but it nonetheless presents some unique marketing challenges ……… p. 30

Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor,
Vol. 1, No. 1 (pp 1-16) September 2008

• Licensees reveal what attracts them — and what turns them cold. When potential licensees have expressed interest in an invention and request additional information from a TTO, they know exactly what they’re looking for — and so should tech transfer professionals, they argue. The expertise and market preferences of a company are generally accessible on their web sites and in other publicly available information, say licensees. Armed with that knowledge, they contend, TTOs should send them everything they want — but nothing more……… p. 1
• Make sponsored research staff your IP marketing allies. Sponsored research staff may be a valuable source of leads for marketing your innovations to companies whose interest has already been demonstrated, but structural and other barriers can keep you from benefitting from this built-in resource. Working to break down those barriers, and targeting industry contacts who’ve already demonstrated their interest in your technologies, is a strategy with loads of potential despite requiring some delicate maneuvering……… p. 1
• Marketing ‘slow movers’ takes a combination of realism, creativity. Every TTO has its share of “slow movers” — inventions that just keep piling up and go begging for licensees. Experts differ on specific strategies to turn these dull stones into polished commercial gems, but they all agree that it takes a truly creative approach to market something that seems “unmarketable”……… p. 2
• IP marketers mine inventors’ contacts for prospective licensees. To reach out to potential licensees, savvy TTO execs are taking advantage of their researchers’ Rolodexes……… p. 3
• Send your inventor on the road – if it’s in his ‘DNA.’ One strategy used by TTOs to maximize the marketing value of their inventors is to have them ‘wave the flag’ when they are presenting at industry seminars. But marketing is not for everybody, and you should first know what your inventors are and are not capable of — rather than throwing them in the water and seeing if they can ‘swim’……… p. 4
• Tailor follow-up packages to the needs of your prospects. Once a potential licensee has interest in one or more of your inventions, there is one cardinal rule to keep in mind as you put together your follow-up package: Limit what you send them to information you know will meet their needs……… p. 6
• Joint ‘victory’ wins sponsored research as marketing partner. Nothing will win over your sponsored research office like a joint ‘victory’ in IP marketing……… p. 8
• ‘Click-through’ license agreements can pave way to bigger deals. Aimed at a mostly academic audience, click-through licensing can increase the efficiency of the licensing process while also encouraging wider access so the IP involved gets used, talked about, and ultimately commercialized in earnest……… p. 11
• Make the most of your TTO’s exhibit booth investment. Trade show booths can be invaluable in the effort to generate leads — and in special circumstances can even lead to completing licensing agreements right on the spot. But exhibiting can be costly. It’s critical, trade show veterans say, to optimize the impact and effectiveness of your exhibit and make sure the effort is worth the expense ……… p. 13