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