Research Foundation Banks on Intellectual Assets
Published Apr 07, 2003
When the going gets tough, the tough get entrepreneurial.
With the current economic challenges, the University of Tennessee has had to look for revenue sources outside their traditional funding stream. An asset inventory led officials to step up efforts to nurture the one thing every good academic facility has in plentiful supply … intellectual property.
“The university had known they weren’t really taking advantage of the intellectual capital that existed,” explains Brice Bible, a key staff member behind the newly formed UT Research Foundation, which replaces the university’s former Research Corporation.
The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 enabled universities to retain title to federally funded research, prompting UT’s focus on obtaining patents and managing intellectual rights. But while the UT Research Corporation protected the legal rights of the research, it did not actively market any of the ideas. The Research Foundation plans to change all that.
To understand the benefits of a well-marketed product resulting from university research, look no further than the University of Florida and its invention of Gatorade.
In 1965, university researchers developed the drink to fight dehydration on the football field. After the Gators began using the drink, their game improved so much that it caught the attention of Stokely-VanCamp, who bought the rights to Gatorade. Now owned by PepsiCo, the sports drink comes in 50 flavors worldwide and brings in more than $2 billion a year. The University of Florida receives 20 percent of the royalties.
“To a great extent, we don’t really know if we’re sitting on that gold mine here at the university,” Bible says. “A lot of us believe we are.”
By expanding its scope, the Research Foundation will actively look for private sector partnerships for fully developed ideas, while seeking out funding for bench research.
“We’re adding people that understand how to help faculty sell their product to a company or recognize an opportunity or even start their own company,” Bible says.
A classic win-win situation, both the university and faculty inventor benefit monetarily from successfully turning a concept into a corporation.
“We think there is great potential for growing new jobs in Tennessee and for attracting and retaining top faculty,” Bible says.
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