On Monday, August 5, 2013, the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) released the highlights of the AUTM U.S. Licensing Activity Survey: FY2012. The full results of the survey won’t be available until later this year, but the “highlights” release does provide some interesting quantitative information about licensing activities at U.S. universities, hospitals and research institutions.

Institutions responding to the survey reported startup companies formed by 70 institutions employed 15,741 full-time employees. The survey also showed:

• 22,150 total U.S. patent applications filed (+11.3%)
• 14,224 new patent applications filed (+7.2%)
• 5,145 issued U.S. patents (+9.5%)
• 5,130 licenses executed (+4.7%)
• 1,242 options executed (+7%)
• 483 executed licenses containing equity (+16.1%)
• Total license income: $2.6 billion (+6.8%)
• 705 startup companies formed (+5.1%)
• 4,002 startups still operating as of the end of FY2012 (+1.9%)

At present, patents and innovators are under attack by certain companies that would like to see patent rights weakened so that they can, in their view, better deal with the patent infringement litigations they face. This has caused the White House to get involved (see here and here) and there are reforms pending in Congress to address the so-called problem of patent trolls. What will become of all of these proposals when Congress comes back is anyone’s guess given that the GAO report recently released did not find there to be a patent troll problem. See GAO Report Unmasks Mythical Patent Troll Problem. That, together with questions about use of force in Syria and the inevitable end of fiscal year budget battles, should mean any patent reform will at least go to the back burner. But if and when it does come up, these AUTM facts and figures absolutely must be thoughtfully considered.

Patents provide tremendous incentive to innovate and allow the businesses that license technologies, including ground breaking University technologies, to further invest in commercialization and ultimately bringing new products and services to market. Without robust patent protection, we can anticipate what is now our high-tech economy will sputter.

Rather than vilifying innovators, we SHOULD be talking about what to do with those who abuse the litigation process and are using issued patents as the assault weapon of choice, seeking a few thousand or even a few hundred dollars from numerous small businesses, many who are not by any stretch of the imagination infringing.

The AUTM survey is quite illuminating. While many who detest patents would like to lump universities in with other non-practicing entities (i.e., patent trolls), it sure doesn’t sound like universities are “patent trolls,” does it? University technologies directly lead to the formation and continuous operation of thousands of companies. How can an intellectually honest distinction be made between what a university does when they license a start-up to commercialize, and what a so-called manufacturing company, like Apple, does when they pay a foreign manufacturer to make their products and ship them into the United States?

University innovations have laid the foundation for thousands of startup companies since 1980; in fact, well in excess of 7,000 startup companies have been formed. These startup companies are not just high-tech companies, they are the highest tech companies based on the most cutting-edge research and innovation our country has to offer. These companies are not imaginary or mythical, but rather they are real, tangible and operating companies; they exist! These startup companies are also U.S.-formed companies that are located in the U.S. and employ U.S. workers. Now that is a jobs plan!

Rather than vilifying innovators, it is time to notice that patented technologies are contributing to exciting scientific advances and creating high-paying jobs.

Tags: AUTM, patent, patent troll, patent trolls, patents, startups, university technology

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 5th, 2013 at 20:52 and is filed under bayh-dole, IP LIcensing, Patent Issues, posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.