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Technology Transfer
Technology TransferWHY TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY? According to Carayannis et al., technology transfer usually involves some source of technology, created and owned by a group which possess specialized technical skills; this group then transfers the technology to a target group of receptors who do not possess those specialized technical skills, and who therefore cannot create the tool themselves. In the United States especially, the technology transfer experience has pointed to multiple transfer strategies, two of which are the most significant: (1) the licensing of intellectual property rights and (2) extending property rights and technical expertise to developing firms. Technology transfer is a fast-growing activity in the U.S. research and development system, and one which has received substantial attention from governments, industry, and universities. The exact nature of this activity is difficult to pin down, partly because the term has many different connotations. Some of the varieties of technology transfer commonly discussed in business periodicals (such as the Wall Street Journal ) include:
While all four types of technology transfer are of concern to businesses, this overview will deal mostly with the first two types. International technology transfer and North-South technology transfer these activities tend to be driven directly by foreign policy and national defense concerns, while the other two types are driven by a balance of corporate and policy interests. The major categories of technology transfer and commercialization involve the transfer of:
WHY TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY?Most technology transfer takes place because the organization in which a technology is developed is different from the organization that brings the technology to market. The process of introducing a technology into the marketplace is called technology commercialization. In many cases, technology commercialization is carried out by a single firm. The firm's employees invent the technology, develop it into a commercial product or process, and sell it to customers. In a growing number of cases, however, the organization that creates a technology does not bring it to the market. There are several potential reasons for this:
From a public policy perspective, technology transfer is important because technology can be utilized as a resource for shared prosperity at home and abroad. As a resource, technology (1) consists of a body of knowledge and know-how, (2) acts as a stimulant for healthy competitive international trade, (3) is linked with other nations' commercial needs, and (4) needs an effective plan for management and entrepreneurship from lab to market. From a business perspective, companies engage in technology transfer for a number of reasons:
For government laboratories and universities, the motivations for technology transfer are somewhat different:
Technology transfer has also proved to be fertile ground for secondary markets. For example, the company UTEK has created a business out of purchasing and then reselling technologies. This business is important to some companies that may lack the resources to develop technologies or the connections to engage more directly with technology transfer. UTEK is one type of intermediary that works to connect different sectors, such as universities, public institutions, and companies. HOW IS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERRED?The first requirement for an organization to transfer a technology is to establish legal ownership of that technology through intellectual property law. There are four generally recognized forms of intellectual property in industrialized nations:
Under U.S. law, a patent is granted only by the federal government and lets the patentee exclude others from making, using, selling, or offering an invention for a fixed term, currently 20 years from the date the patent application is filed. A trademark, as defined under the Trademark Act of 1946 (The Lanham Act) is “any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof (1) used by a person, or (2) which a person has a bona fide intention to use in commerce…to identify and distinguish his or her goods, including a unique product, from those manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown.” A copyright seeks to promote literary and artistic creativity by protecting, for a limited time, what the U.S. Constitution broadly calls writings of authors. The general rule in the United States for a work created on or after January 1, 1978, whether or not it is published, is that copyright lasts for the author's lifetime plus 50 years after the author's death. The copyright in a work made for hire or in an anonymous work lasts for 75 years from publication or 100 years from creation, whichever is shorter. A trade secret is information that an inventor chooses not to disclose and to which the inventor also controls access, thus providing enduring protection. Trade secrets remain in force only if the holder takes reasonable precautions to prevent them from being revealed to people outside the firm, except through a legal mechanism such as a license. Trade secrets are governed by state rather than federal law. In the early twenty-first century, a number of scholars from fields such as law voiced concerns that new technologies were outpacing current intellectual property law. Specifically, they argued that copyright law prevented new forms of creative expression that had been enabled by new media technologies. Creative Commons was one organization that was created with the intent of allowing for more flexible types of copyrights. Later, Creative Commons launched Scientific Commons, which sought to address the same concerns in scientific fields. One of the goals behind this project was to ease the transfer of various forms of knowledge. The second step in technology transfer is finding a suitable recipient for that technology—one that can use the technology and has something of value to offer in return. Firms are now studying more systematically the process of licensing and technology transfer. There are five information activities needed to support technology transfer:
These information needs are often supported by service companies, such as licensing consultants, and by electronic media, including databases and online networks. Some new online networks use the Internet to help firms in these information activities. The information-transfer process is one of the most critical steps in technology transfer. New licensing practices are designed to address this process. For example, many licenses now bundle both the basic technology and the equipment needed to utilize that technology in a single agreement. A license may also include a “know-how” agreement, which exchanges relevant trade secrets (with appropriate protections) to the licensee to help in exploiting technology. In some industries, such as petroleum exploration, firms even practice wet licensing, whereby employees of the licenser are loaned out to the licensee to teach how a technology should be properly used. The major barrier to the increase in technology transfer among firms is organizational behavior. In the past, cultural blocks such as the “not invented here” syndrome prevented firms from even showing interest in technology transfer. New concepts along the lines of knowledge management are changing behaviors and beliefs, leading firms to realize the enormous gains to be made through the active pursuit of licensing. Once the organization has at least started to establish ownership of the technology, there are several possible legal and/or contractual mechanisms for transferring technology from one organization to another:
The choice of which mechanism to use in a particular technology transaction depends on many factors, including the stage of development for that technology, what the company receiving the technology is willing or able to pay, what technology or other assets it might be able to offer in place of money, the likely benefits of establishing a longer-lasting partnership between the organizations instead of a one-time transfer; and the exact legal status of ownership over that technology. For example, if a small firm simply wants to sell its technology to a large firm in exchange for money, it will probably choose to license the technology. If the small firm also wants access to the large firm's complementary assets, such as its production facilities and distribution network, it will try to negotiate a more substantial and permanent relationship, such as an R&D contract or a cooperative R&D agreement. PRIVATE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERTechnology transfer between private companies is most commonly accomplished through licensing, although other mechanisms such as joint ventures, research consortia, and research partnerships are also quite popular. Licensing is a big business by itself. In 2002 U.S. companies received over $66 billion in payments on technology licenses from other organizations, of which $58 billion was from domestic sources. Another growing mode of private technology transfer is the formation of research joint ventures (RJVs) between companies in the United States. For years, such joint ventures were rare, mostly due to fears among companies that joint ventures would provoke antitrust litigation from the government. Passage of the National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) in 1984 and the National Cooperative Research and Production Act in 1993 relaxed antitrust regulation of such partnerships, leading to a substantial increase in RJVs. Studies of the filings of RJVs registered with the Department of Justice under the NCRA shows some interesting trends:
Research joint ventures are an advantageous means of acquiring high-risk technologies for several reasons. First, joint ventures enable the risks and costs involved in early research in technology to be shared across multiple firms, reducing the burden on each individual company. Second, the resources and expertise needed to develop certain technologies may be distributed across multiple firms, so RJVs are the only way to combine those resources in one effort. Third, in industries where technology advances quickly, RJVs are an effective way to keep up with new developments. Finally, RJVs are often used to develop and set critical technical standards in certain industries, especially telecommunications. These reasons indicate that RJVs will continue to increase in significance as a tool for technology transfer. The software world is a realm that allows for a different type of technology transfer. For years, open-source software has allowed private users to engage in developing, changing, and improving software products. In effect, this has led to a type of technology transfer that can result in a proliferation of newer products. Though this may not seem of use to companies, some firms have embraced open-source software and code, thus making their products more appealing. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FROM GOVERNMENT TO INDUSTRYIn an effort to increase the application of government research results to industry technology problems (and therefore fuel technology-based economic growth), the U.S. government has passed a series of laws since 1980 to encourage the transfer of technologies from government laboratories to industry. Technology licensing was the earliest focus of activity, based on the notion that government laboratories were like treasure chests of available technologies that could easily be applied to corporate needs. In fact, government technology licensing activity is extremely limited, except in the National Institutes of Health. The NIH has been the source of several ground-breaking therapies and other medical technologies and enjoys close relations with the pharmaceutical industry, enabling the agency to gain large amounts of licensing revenue. Other agencies face substantial difficulties in licensing technologies. Often, their technologies require substantial development before commercialization, reducing their value to firms. Also, most government laboratories do research in areas where there is no clear, consistent path to commercialization as exists in the pharmaceutical industry. The uncertainty of commercialization also diminishes the willingness of firms to purchase technology licenses from laboratories. Instead, most agencies have focused on signing Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), a mechanism developed under the 1986 Federal Technology Transfer Act. CRADAs are contracts to conduct joint R&D projects, where the government laboratory contributes personnel and equipment, while the partner contributes these assets and funding as well. The number of CRADAs signed by government agencies has increase steadily in recent years. There are several potential benefits and potential difficulties involved in CRADA research relationships:
UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFEROne of the original pieces of U.S. technology-transfer legislation, the Bayh-Dole Act, directed government agencies to encourage universities and other research organizations to license out technologies developed with federal funding. Since 1980, this activity has become a small but growing source of revenue for universities. Technology transfer from academia and other research institutions to industry continues to grow, according to the annual survey of the Association of University Technology Managers. The 2003 survey shows that increasing numbers of research institutions are forging licensing agreements with commercial entities to bring newly developed technology and products to the market. In 2003, the 165 institutions of higher education responding to the survey reported receiving close to $1 billion in licensing revenue in 2003, a 1 percent increase over 2002. Commercial institutions pay royalties for the right to put inventions and discoveries from universities to commercial use in products such as computer-imaging technology, medical diagnostic testing, and treatment of disease. Institutions of higher education, in turn, can use the revenue to increase investments in research and development. This technology transfer also leads to sponsored research agreements between firms and universities, often to undertake additional research needed to commercialize technologies. For industry, universities offer the best way to acquire basic technological research as those activities are curtailed within firms. Universities also house experts in very focused fields of study that are likely to have benefits to a small number of firms. Finally, joint industry-university research is viewed as an important recruiting tool in today's competition for scientific talent, since industry-funded projects are often carried out by graduate students who later go to work for their former sponsors. Often, there are multiple players in this type of technology transfer. Venture capital firms, for example, can play a large role in helping finance the development of these technologies, resulting in startup companies. In 2007, the New York Times reported that some universities had developed “offices of technology transfer.” The article used Neven Vision, a company that was formed through venture capital investment as well as help from the University of Southern California's technology transfer practices, as an example. The story also noted that universities profit not only through patents, but also through prospective endowments if a company should be successful. In 2007, Harvard University licensed a slew of nanotechnology patents to a Massachusetts startup, Nano-Terra. As a result, the school also took an equity position in the company, becoming a major shareholder. Interestingly, the company itself was formed by a Harvard professor. This demonstrates the close relationships universities can have with the private sector when it comes to technology transfer. Additionally, it is important to note that informal social arrangements can also aid technology transfer. The sociologist Manuel Castells has referred to this as a “milieu” where a region attracts a great number of knowledge workers, allowing for ideas to circulate. Additionally, the historian AnnaLee Saxenian has shown that Silicon Valley's success in the 1980s was due in part to a culture where people changed jobs frequently, a phenomenon that lead to a widespread dissemination of innovative ideas. She also compares this region favorably in relation to company cultures that were not as fast to develop and innovate because of rigid and hierarchical organizational structures and cultures. Technology transfer is a valuable mechanism by which industry can accelerate its innovation activities and gain competitive advantage through cooperation. Technology transfer can also boost overall economic growth and regional economic development. While further study is needed to estimate the exact benefits gained from technology transfer and ways to achieve those benefits, it is clear that this is an activity that is becoming a central feature of the U.S. research and development system. SEE ALSO Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances; Licensing and Licensing Agreements; Technology Management BIBLIOGRAPHYCarayannis, Elias, Everett Rogers, K. Kurihara, and M. Albritton. “High-Technology Spin-offs from Government R&D Laboratories and Research Universities.” International Journal of Technovation 18, no. 1 (1998): 1–11. ———. “Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAS) as Technology Transfer Mechanisms.” R&D Management, Spring 1998. Carayannis, Elias, and Jeffrey Alexander. “Secrets of Success and Failure in Commercializing U.S. Government R&D Laboratories Technologies: A Structured Case Studies Approach.” International Journal of Technology Management 17, no. 3/4 (1998). Castells, Manuel. The Informational City. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Oxford University Press, 1989. Flanigan, James. “The Route from Research to Start-Up.” The New York Times, 18 January 2007. Geisler, E. “Technology Transfer: Toward Mapping the Field, a Review, and Research Directions.” Journal of Technology Transfer, Summer-Fall 1993, 88–93. Goldscheider, Robert, ed. Licensing Best Practices: The LESI Guide to Strategic Issues and Contemporary Realities. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. Ham, Rose Marie, and David C. Mowery. “Improving Industry-Government Cooperative R&D.” Issues in Science & Technology, Summer 1995, 67–73. Kelley, Kevin. New Rules for the New Economy. New York: Penguin, 1998. Megantz, Robert C. Technology Management: Developing and Implementing Effective Licensing Programs. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. Mello, John P. Jr. “A Little Less ‘R’, a Little More ‘D’.” CFO.com, 12 March 2007. Available at http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8840528?f=search. Muir, Albert E. The Technology Transfer System. Latham, NY: Latham Book Publishing, 1997. Parr, Russell L., and Patrick H. Sullivan. Technology Licensing: Corporate Strategies for Maximizing Value. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996. Saxenian, AnnaLee. Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1994. Science Commons. Available at http://sciencecommons.org/. Shankland, Stephen. “AMD Nurtures Open-Source Graphics.” CNET News.com, 6 September 2007. Available from: http://news.cnet.com/AMD-nurtures-open-source-graphics/2100-7344_3-6206581.html. Shenkar, Oded. The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power, and Your Job. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. Speser, Phyllis L. The Art and Science of Technology Transfer. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2006. Utek. 2008. Available from: http://www.utekcorp.com/. Weisman, Robert. “Harvard Set to License 50-plus Nanotech Patents.” The Boston Globe, 4 June 2007, F1. |
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Cite this article
"Technology Transfer." Encyclopedia of Management. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Technology Transfer." Encyclopedia of Management. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3273100297.html "Technology Transfer." Encyclopedia of Management. 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3273100297.html |
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Technology Transfer
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERTechnology is information or knowledge that is put to use in order to accomplish a particular task. Technology transfer is the application of information into use. American research universities have become increasingly involved in various technology-transfer activities by establishing technology/business incubators, technology parks, venture capital funds for start-up companies, university research foundations, and technology licensing offices. This trend toward what Sheila Slaughter and Larry Leslie (1997) call academic capitalism is also illustrated by an increase in the number of university-based research centers–and by the tendency for some universities to retain partial ownership in the start-up companies that spin out of university research. Through this variety of boundary-spanning activities, research universities seek to facilitate the transfer of technological innovations to private companies in order to: (1) create jobs and contribute to local economic development, and (2) earn additional funding for university research. Technology transfer from research universities has been increasingly recognized as an engine for economic growth in the United States. This relatively new role for research universities has been greeted with considerable discussion and debate. One question that has been raised concerns what role American research universities can, and should, play in transferring research results to private companies in the form of licensed technologies. A research university is an institution whose main purposes are to conduct research and to train graduate students in how to conduct research. The first research universities developed in Germany; the University of Göttingen (founded in 1737) and the University of Berlin (established in 1810) were among the earliest examples. The idea of the research university spread to the United States, first to Johns Hopkins University (in 1876) and Clark University (in 1890), and then to Stanford University (1891) and the University of Chicago (1892). In the early twenty-first century, several hundred U.S. universities consider themselves research universities. While some U.S. research universities established an office of technology licensing as early as 1925 (the University of Wisconsin at Madison), 1935 (Iowa State University), and 1940 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]), most research universities did not adopt this idea until after 1970. Wisconsin, and later Stanford, served as the models for many other research universities as they became increasingly involved in technology transfer. The Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act of 1980, commonly known as the Bayh-Dole Act and amended by Public Law 98-620 in 1984, facilitated patenting and licensing on a broad scale by research universities. This legislation shifted the responsibility for the transfer of technologies stemming from federally funded research from the federal government to the research universities that conducted the research. Since the early 1980s the rise of biotechnology research and development and, more generally, of research in the life sciences has also boosted the number of research universities with offices of technology licensing–and increased the incomes earned by these offices. Today, some 70 percent of all technology royalties earned by universities come from the life sciences, with the remainder mainly derived from the physical sciences, including engineering. David Mowery et al. (1999) found that most invention disclosures, patents, and licensing at Columbia University were concentrated in a very small number of departments, including electrical engineering, computer science, and the medical school. The spread of university offices of technology licensing followed the S-shaped curve that is characteristic of the cumulative rate of adoption of an innovation, with larger, more research-oriented universities tending to adopt first, followed over ensuing years by universities with a smaller amount of external research funding that devote fewer resources to research and development and technology transfer. Detractors of university patenting and licensing point to such potential problems as conflicts of interest that may be created for faculty members, delays in publication of research results to accommodate patent filing or to benefit university-licensed companies, and the possible shift from basic research to more applied research, which has a higher potential for yielding patents and licenses. However, Mowery et al. found that there has been very little shift to more applied research due to the Bayh-Dole Act at Columbia University, Stanford University, or in the University of California System. U.S. universities that are relatively more involved in technology transfer (indicated by invention disclosures, patents filed, start-up companies, and licensing royalties) are characterized by: (1) higher average faculty salaries; (2) a larger number of support staff for technology licensing; (3) a higher value of private gifts, grants, and contracts; and (4) larger research and development expenditures from industry and from federal sources. See also: Faculty as Entrepreneurs; Faculty Consulting; University-Industrial Research Collaboration. bibliographyDeVol, Ross C. 1999. America's High-Tech Economy: Growth, Development, and Risk for Metropolitan Areas. Santa Monica, CA: Miliken Institute. Massing, Donald E. 1998. AUTM Licensing Survey: FY 1997. Norwalk, CT: Association of University Technology Managers. Mowery, David C.; Nelson, Richard R.; Sampat, Bhaven N.; and Ziedonis, Arvids A. 1999. "The Effects of the Bayh-Dole Act on U.S. University Research and Technology Transfer." In Industrializing Knowledge: University-Industry Linkages in Japan and the United States, ed. Lewis M. Branscomb, Fumio Kodama, and Richard Florida. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Rogers, Everett M. 1995. Diffusion of Innovations, 4th edition. New York: Free Press. Rogers, Everett M.; Hall, Brad J.; Hashimoto, Michio; Steffensen, Morton; Speakman, Kristen L.; and Timko, Molly K. 1999. "Technology Transfer from University-Based Research Centers: University of New Mexico Experience." Journal of Higher Education 70 (6):687–705. Rogers, Everett M.; Yin, Jing; and Hoffmann, Joern. 2000. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Technology Transfer Offices at U.S. Research Universities." Journal of the Association of University Technology Managers 12:43–80. Slaughter, Sheila, and Leslie, Larry L. 1997. Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Everett M. Rogers |
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Cite this article
ROGERS, EVERETT M.. "Technology Transfer." Encyclopedia of Education. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ROGERS, EVERETT M.. "Technology Transfer." Encyclopedia of Education. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3403200621.html ROGERS, EVERETT M.. "Technology Transfer." Encyclopedia of Education. 2002. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3403200621.html |
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