An article about new software developed at Sydney University which appeared in the IT section of the online version of the publication Australian had more than just copy; it included a video, provided to the publication, depicting this software “in action.” Given the nature of the software, video was an ideal medium. Called Focus, the software works on a tabletop, which is transformed into what functions like a large version of an iPod. Images can be dragged and dropped  – by hand — across the tabletop, at the same time they are being shared with remote conference participants, who can also perform the same functions.

Sydney University PhD student Anthony Collins developed the application over the past couple of years for his thesis, in conjunction with PhD student Trent Apted and computer human-adapted interaction head Professor Judy Kay. The Focus application, which is being billed as a rival to Microsoft’s Surface, uses cameras to interpret gestures and movements made across a table to control an onscreen computer interface. The team assembled a surface computer for less than $5,000 using a projector, a laptop, a motion sensor called a mimeograph, and of course, a table.

The software allows groups to use a surface computer to access and share stored files and information; these can be moved across to other computing devices. Some observers see natural marketing applications for the software. “We can definitely see something like this in the boardroom of the future, where people need to call on documents to show them to others,” says Collins. “It’s very general; it could be magazine editors pulling up stories to figure out what they’re going to include in the magazines.”

Microsoft has begun selling its $20,000 Surface product in a high-profile marketing campaign, and bedazzled executives have bought even before deciding how to use it. In a different approach, the group in charge of commercializing this software will launch the device after it has developed proven applications for customers across industries. The Smart Services co-operative research centre owns the IP and is working with customers to develop applications for the technology, according to Smart Services CRC chief executive Warren Bradey. That process should be completed by the end of the year, he says.

Source: The Australian

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

TTO budgets are notoriously skimpy — and economic conditions haven’t helped, to say the least. Many offices are struggling to operate effectively with fewer resources, and cost-cutting has gotten its fair share of attention by most. But there is another way to stretch your TTO budget that takes the opposite approach: adding resources and dollars from industry collaborators. The fact is that, even without specific IP, many well-heeled companies want to be on your speed dial and develop relationships with the university, hoping to be first in line for critical new technologies and anxious to get a glimpse at what’s going on behind the laboratory doors. For cash-strapped TTOs, these companies can be a wellspring of needed resources and funds beyond the typical licensee or sponsored research relationship. What’s more, these relationships often lead directly to future licensing deals, bringing even more benefit to your tech transfer program.

To help you tap into these industry resources and funds, Technology Transfer Tactics’ Distance Learning Division has partnered with a TTO executive who has made it his mission to offset tight money constraints by forging corporate partnerships and utilizing industry funding to further the office’s aims and bolster its budget. Mike Rondelli, Director of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, has successfully led San Diego State University’s TTO to consistent high performance in the ratio of research dollars spent to licensing revenues earned. Find out how SDSU’s secrets of success by joining us on April 8th for Stretch Your TTO’s Budget: Tap Into Industry Resources and Partnerships, a 90-minute distance learning event that will offer first-hand advice on how to offset tight budget constraints by forging partnerships, utilizing industry resources, and more. CLICK HERE for full details or to register.

PLUS, coming March 30th: The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Audioconferences, Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

Management consulting firm Lassen Scientific, Inc., based in Northern California, is launching a new service called “Technology Marketing Department,” or TMD. This service, according to Lassen, provides a turnkey outsourced technology marketing department. The goal of the TMD program is to significantly increase the marketability of clients’ technologies, while concurrently speeding up the process and success rate of  technology transfer functions.

The costs associated with internal technology marketing departments can be prohibitive, notes Nicholas Webb, Lassen’s CEO. “The TMD provides a complete solution that includes technology triage, the development of technology offering memorandums, and a comprehensive marketing plan for an individual or suites of technologies,” says Webb. “This service provides all of the functions that an internal marketing department would perform at a small fraction of the cost.”

The fee-based program is structured for monthly payments, based on the goals and portfolio of a particular organization, with no long-term contract requirements. For more information or to secure a proposal, contact Webb directly at 530-244-6336, ext. 11 or at nick@nickwebb.com.

Source: www.lassenscientific.com

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

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

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

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

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

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

“According to Forrester Research, about 87% of marketers and 85% of agencies misattribute credit for their marketing results: They either attribute all credit to the last touch point or have no way of attributing the credit in a meaningful manner,” says Anto Chittilappilly, president, founder, and chief technology officer of Visual IQ Inc., a marketing business-intelligence company. “Marketers and their agencies make five common mistakes that can be avoided by deploying cross-channel attribution techniques.” Cross-channel attribution, he explains, “is about attributing the credit for marketing results to where credit is due.” Here are the five common mistakes marketers and their agencies make, according to Chittilappilly, that can be avoided by using cross-channel attribution:

1. Nonexistent or Nonusable Data. “Odds are that you are not collecting marketing data, or you have lots of data that you are not using to make the right marketing decisions,” says Chittilappilly. “Most data collected is in aggregate form, which is not useful for finding insights. Moreover, it is often spread over different entities such as agencies, publishers, media planners, and business units, and it is fragmented across several Excel and PowerPoint files, Access databases, and relational systems.” An integrated data warehouse for all marketing data and results — which is part of any cross-channel attribution strategy — is crucial for being able to act on the data you have, he says.

2. Silos and Nonstandardized Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Unfortunately, says Chittilappilly, most marketers are forced into the long-held practice of tracking marketing performance in silos — that is, each channel is measured using different metrics. “Online search has KPIs such as clicks, conversions, and cost per action, whereas television has KPIs such as impressions and gross rating points,” he notes. “Branding and direct response are measured in silos, too. Even smart marketers who employ best-of-breed agencies often track their agencies’ performance in silos.” There is no standard measurement practice that goes across channels, agencies, and marketing initiatives, but an integrated and holistic approach to measurement and optimization is critical for your marketing organization because it can serve as a surrogate for a standard set of yardsticks with which to measure program success against KPIs and other goals, says Chittilappilly.

3. Lack of Synergy and Lack of Timing. “We all know that different marketing channels influence one another, yet many marketers struggle putting that anecdotal evidence to work,” says Chittilappilly. “Too often, the same advertiser will run several campaigns at once, with no tie among them to help boost overall success, or the advertiser will not align timing among those programs. That is unfortunate, because if one channel is good in giving a lift to another, another may be good at receiving the lift and producing conversions.”

4. Going With Your Gut. Admitting that your decisions are based on gut feelings is difficult, especially when you’re spending time and resources producing detailed reports that should be able to guide you objectively, notes Chittilappilly. But, he says, decision-making can often be subjective and based on gut feelings at the executive and execution levels. “That’s because the Excel reports and PowerPoint decks many of us regularly consume are at high levels, don’t offer insights, and are not segmented — and, therefore, are not usable,” he asserts. “An objective and fact-based decision-support system, such as those provided by some of the attribution solutions now available, should be helping your organization make the right decisions.”

5. Relying on tradition. Most marketers and agencies are comfortable with their traditional ways of decision-making, Chittilappilly observes. “Sometimes good ideas take time to get implemented,” he says. “Sometimes, though, tradition limits the speed of execution. At the end of the day, the marketer who has the better process and technology to make better decisions and who acts quickly wins over others.”

Source: MarketingProfs

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

Through a new partnership with Life Science Analytics, 2Market Information Inc. is offering access to specialized drug pipeline reports that offer an unprecedented level of detail on drug development activity in more than 150 specific therapy areas. You can choose only the individual reports you need in PDF format, or subscribe to the entire database and receive updated pipeline information whenever you need it throughout the year. These rich intelligence resources will arm you with powerful information you can use to:

• Keep track of competitors and new product concepts
• Identify white space in specific therapy areas
• Guide research and drug development priorities
• Assess likely licensees and partners
• Understand the IP landscape for specific indications
• Gain critical market intelligence to guide allocation of resources and investments

Therapy Area Pipeline Reports provide comprehensive detail on the full pipeline status for the specific therapeutic indications you’re most interested in. Each report provides specific, up-to-date information on deals and alliances, research activity, licensing, marketing, competition, and the latest news and developments for each specified drug therapy. For details and to view a list of the reports offered by therapy area, CLICK HERE.

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

If you’re planning a marketing road trip, you might want to take some lessons from the “NBA on ESPN RV Tour,” now in its third year traveling the highways to generate viewers for ABC and ESPN coverage of National Basketball Association games, says Patricia Odell, writing for PROMO Xtra. Revolution, the agency handling the promotion, uses social media to connect with fans and drive people to tour stops and TV screens, she notes. Its efforts so far have helped generate more than 1,600 Twitter followers and about 17,000 Facebook fans. The tour’s YouTube Channel, which provides video from the tour sites as well as replays of TV spots that feature the RV, has had more than 750,000 views, according to Darren Lachtman, director of business development for Revolution. Odell notes these best practices the agency follows when using social media to promote its events:

Build Awareness: Post the details about when and where the events are taking place a couple of days in advance.

Motivate: Provide an incentive on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media to prompt people to come to an event. “For example,” says Odell, “Washington, DC, basketball fans got an e-mail that promised two free tickets to a Wizards game if they brought a copy of the e-mail to the mobile tour site.”

Offer Takeaways: Hand outs, such as business cards with the branded Facebook and Twitter addresses, make nice reminders. “Include a call to action — for example, checking out photos from the events — to drive social interaction,” says Odell.

Document: “Take photos and videos and post them across social media outlets to hype upcoming and past events and to encourage people to come to the next event or to talk about what already happened. Update the content multiple times per week,” says Odell.

Start the Conversation: “Keep the chatter going; ask questions and encourage conversation,” says Odell. “Don’t just push out information; send out a tweet asking for the location of the best deli near the event site. Then go get a sandwich, post a photo and tweet about it.”

Be an Expert: Have a dedicated staff member — preferably on the road — to handle all social media to ensure consistency, focus and regular interaction with fans.

Be Consistent: Give all executions — from social media, to TV spots, to print ads, to the event vehicle — a consistent look and feel.

Source: PROMO

Posted March 9th, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

OK, you entrepreneurs and tech transfer execs, better hone those marketing skills: There’s money to be had. Intel and 24 VC firms say they plan to invest $3.5 billion (no, that’s not a typo) in American start-ups over the next two years. In addition, Intel, Google, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and 13 other employers pledged to add jobs in 2010, specifically by hiring 10,500 graduates of American colleges, largely those with computer science and engineering degrees.

The initiative, called the Invest in America Alliance, was unveiled by Intel’s chief executive, Paul S. Otellini, in a speech at the Brookings Institution. “Unfortunately, long-term investments in education, research, digital technology. and human capital have been steadily declining in the U.S.,” Otellini said, according to a transcript of the speech. “So, too, has the commitment to policies that made us such an entrepreneurial powerhouse for more than a century.” Other countries, including China, India, Taiwan, Finland, Korea, and the Netherlands, have become “far more potent competitors in the next phase of the global economy,” he noted. As part of the alliance, the VC’s — including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock, and DCM — have committed to investing portions of their funds in start-ups founded in the United States. Intel Capital, the company’s venture capital arm, will invest $200 million.

The United States is quickly losing ground to China and India, says Robert Compton, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who produced a documentary on education in the three countries.

Fewer than 10% of U.S. college graduates have engineering degrees, compared with more than one-third in India and China, and more foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities are returning to their home countries, he notes. “Early indicators are that we are not the center of innovation anymore,” Mr. Compton says. “It is shifting to the East.” Another indicator of the shift is patent filings, which increased 30% in China last year while declining 11% in the United States, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The announcement from Otellini comes as both Intel and its VC arm could use a public relations boost themselves. The Federal Trade Commission has filed an antitrust complaint against Intel. Rajiv Goel, a former Managing Director at Intel who worked closely with Intel Capital, has admitted to leaking confidential corporate information in the Galleon insider-trading case.

Source: The New York Times

Posted March 2nd, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: 3 ]

There’s less than a week left to register for Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World. Join Jamie Hall (University of British Columbia), Brandon Reynolds (University of Texas at Tyler), and Dee Anderson (Brigham Young University) on Tuesday, March 9th for this invigorating 90-minute audioconference where you’ll discover a treasure trove of inventive, clever, out-of-the-box ideas to move your innovations to market without busting your budget. Here’s what our expert marketing team will cover during the program:

• Low cost and no-cost strategies for branding your TTO
• Going guerrilla: It’s the little things that count
• Best practices for web-based marketing:
  - Social media
  - E-mail strategies
  - Video clips and instructional videos
  - Online listings, and more
• How to engage faculty in your marketing efforts
• Internal and external PR efforts that work wonders
• Marketing collaborations with other universities
• Avoid these resource-draining no-cost efforts — they’re just not worth it!
• Leveraging campus resources such as MBA programs, entrepreneur-in-residence, etc. as partners in your marketing push
• Web analytics: They’re not just for gauging campaign results anymore. We’ll review a case study from the U of British Columbia that saved the TTO thousands of dollars and resources
• Platform marketing vs piecemeal strategy: which is best?
• How to engage web-savvy VCs and Angels

This how-to session also features an optional 30-minute add-on web forum for idea sharing. For complete details and to register, CLICK HERE.

The upcoming distance learning schedule also features:

• The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP — Tuesday, March 30, 2010
• Stretch Your TTO’s Budget: Tap Into Industry Resources and Partnerships — Thursday, April 8, 2010

Posted March 2nd, 2010 under Audioconferences, Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

Webinars can be an effective marketing tool, but they won’t help you at all unless you attract a sufficient number of participants from your target audiences. E-mail marketing is one of the best ways to get the message out about an event, says Janine Popick, CEO and co-founder of online marketing provider VerticalResponse. She offers these webinar promotion dos and don’ts:

1. Don’t forget the basics. “It might sound silly, but marketers often forget the most salient information when sending out a promotional e-mail, such as date, time, or program name,” Popick says. “Identify the time zone, for example, and include opt-out — and opt-in — links.” In addition, she advises, make sure there’s a link recipients can click on to preregister for the program.
2. Do keep content simple. Webinar invitations should include ‘who, what, and why’ right up front, says Popick. Provide a bio for anyone speaking at the event and bullet points that detail exactly what participants should expect to take away from the program. “Really hype the speaker and [his or her] legitimacy,” she says. “You want people to walk away from your message with a good idea of why they need to attend.”
3. Don’t be shy about reminders. If someone has signed up for your program, remind them a week before and then again the day before, Popick advises. “It won’t seem intrusive if you keep it basic, including a link to the program, the time and day reminder, and a quick synopsis of what the recipient should expect,” she says “The message can be changed up a bit, but the bullet points should probably stay the same.”
4. Do use e-mail as a follow-up vehicle. “Once someone takes the time to attend a webinar, it’s crucial that you reach them in some way immediately following the event,” says Popick. E-mails should include a link to the recorded webinar as well as a ‘Thank you.’ Prospects may also receive a special offer. “Segment your attendee list into attendees and registrants. Then segment each into prospects and customers,” Popick suggests. “Leads who didn’t attend should get a link and a special offer.”
5. Don’t overlook the power of testimonials. You probably use case studies and customer quotes in traditional e-mail marketing; they can work just as well in webinar promotions, according to Popick. “You can include links to previous webinars in your current invitation and call out the benefits of attending one of your events by letting a recent attendee explain what he or she got out of the experience,” she shares.
6. Do cull webinar transcripts and materials for future e-mail content. During a successful webinar you may receive more questions than you have time to answer. Those questions can be repurposed as e-newsletter content or blog fodder, says Popick. “You can include a sentence in the follow-up e-mail that says, ‘If you didn’t get your question answered, check out our blog,’” she suggests. “You can excerpt one or two, so registrants who didn’t attend have another reason to click through to the recorded webinar.”
7. Don’t oversell yourself. Webinars work best when they are used for thought leadership and education; you don’t want your entire program to be too self-promotional. “Don’t be afraid to tap speakers from outside your company,” Popick says. “You want your speaker to be viewed as a best practice guru within your industry.”

Source: B to B Magazine

Posted March 2nd, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

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 to help them strengthen relationships with the business community. “I’ve been helping faculty researchers and administrators better understand the nuances of working with industry and the importance of being competitive, by making sure our business practices, policies, and collaborations with industry are equal in quality to our exceptional research & educational capabilities,” explains Nancy K. Smith, director of corporate & business relations, whose career in sales, marketing, and planning spans 35 years. She’s also leading a reorganization process for tech transfer/commercialization and industry collaborations.

Smith says the need to for universities to enhance corporate relations is steadily growing. “What’s been happening is that companies are relying more on universities than ever before to do the ‘R’ component of their R&D, so they’re more important to us than they’ve ever been,” she explains. “What they want from us is to talk about more strategic relationships, and expanded types of engagement that may include multiple companies and universities; they want connections at the highest strategic levels.” So, she explains, a corporation may not seek a research project with a finite beginning and end, but rather a relationship in which the two entities “do business together.”

“They want our help solving complex problems — not just solving a piece of work here and there — and we want to engage at those levels, too,” says Smith. “But with that type of relationship comes their expectations that we are working at the ‘speed of business’ and work the way they do.” In other words, “speaking the language of business” should involve much more than learning a few buzz words if a university is to be successful with their future marketing and relationship building efforts. “It involves understanding the motives of the other party — and they ours,” says Smith. “It’s responsiveness. Speed of business means returning a phone call the same day and responding to e-mails within 24 hours; that’s how business works.”

A detailed article on Smith’s activities at UA appears in the March 2010 issue of Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Posted March 2nd, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

Advertising and marketing veteran John Backstrom says despite the widely held belief that marketing is now dominated by digital media, face-to-face marketing is currently the number one business-to-business marketing medium. “The business world has been radically changed and improved by the advent of electronic communication — e-mail, websites, blogs, PDAs, and even ‘old’ tech like cell phones allow us to very efficiently service many more customers than ever before,” he concedes. But some things have not changed, he adds, and his message, translated into the research commercialization arena, is that successful tech transfer remains largely a contact sport, even in a digital world.

“The challenge is that the central premise of all sales is that people buy from people they ‘like’ and people they ‘trust’ — always,” he stresses. “Like and trust can be maintained electronically, but it has been proven time and again that customers need some face-to-face contact to really get to like and trust.” The other reason face-to-face marketing has become ‘number one,’ says Backstrom, is the opportunity to see firsthand the offerings of various suppliers. “For example, if you are looking for services or products related to CRM, there is a show called the CRM Summit which is chock-full of every possible provider in that space,” he notes. “In just a few hours a buyer can get an up-to-the-minute overview and detailed information for the entire industry. From a seller’s perspective, if they are at the right event, they have the opportunity to efficiently expose their offering to a very high percentage of the prospects in that segment.”

So what does it take to make face-to-face marketing work? Backstrom offers the following tips:

1. The Plan. “Have a well-defined plan of what you want to do, what you want prospects to get from their experience, and how you will deliver,” he says. “A good plan underpins everything.
2. Pick the right opportunities. “The right show or event will make all the difference,” Backstrom asserts. “Start by asking your current customers what shows or events they go to, and why.”
3. Have a great presence. “The right booth or graphics help prospects understand who you are, what you do, and why they should care,” Backstrom says. “A great presence also includes having the right people work the event.”
4. Follow up and evaluate. “Manage and measure your results,” he advises. “A plan for fast follow-up on leads and inquiries is vital.”
5. Have a good partner. A good plan poorly executed is no plan at all, notes Backstrom. “Find a good partner that can help with all the thousand little details that face-to-face marketing presents,” he recommends.

Source: Skyline Trade Show Tips

Posted March 2nd, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing. [ Comments: none ]

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