Technology Transfer

WHY TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY?
HOW IS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERRED?
PRIVATE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FROM GOVERNMENT TO INDUSTRY
UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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:

• International technology transfer: the transfer of technologies developed in one country to firms or other organizations in another country. In the United States, this issue is sometimes associated with the undesired transfer of weapons technology to hostile nations.
• North-South technology transfer: activities for the transfer of technologies from industrial nations (the North) to less-developed countries (the South), usually for the purpose of accelerating economic and industrial development in the poor nations of the world.
• Private technology transfer: the sale or other transfer of a technology from one company to another.
• Public-private technology transfer: the transfer of technology from universities or government laboratories to companies.

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:

1. technology codified and embodied in tangible artifacts
2. processes for implementing technology
3. knowledge and skills that provide the basis for technology and process development

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:

• If the inventing organization is a private company, it may not have the resources needed to bring the technology to market, such as a distribution network, sales organization, or simply the money and equipment for manufacturing the product (these resources are called complementary assets). Even if the company has those resources, the technology may not be viewed as a strategic product for that firm, especially if the technology was created as a byproduct of a research project with a different objective.
• If the inventing organization is a government laboratory, that laboratory is forbidden in general by law or policy (in the United States) from competing with the private sector by selling products or processes. Therefore, the technology can only be brought to market by a private firm.
• If the inventing organization is a university, the university usually does not have the resources or expertise to produce and market the products from that technology. Also, if the technology was developed with funding from the federal government, U.S. law strongly encourages the university to transfer the technology to a private firm for commercialization.

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:

• Companies look to transfer technologies from other organizations because it may be cheaper, faster, and easier to develop products or processes based on a technology someone else has invented rather than to start from scratch. Transferring technology may also be necessary to avoid a patent infringement lawsuit, to make that technology available as an option for future technology development, or to acquire a technology that is necessary for successfully commercializing a technology the company already possesses.
• Companies look to transfer technologies to other organizations as a potential source of revenue, to create a new industry standard, or to partner with a firm that has the resources or complementary assets needed to commercialize the technology.

For government laboratories and universities, the motivations for technology transfer are somewhat different:

• Governments or universities may transfer technology from outside organizations if it is needed to accomplish a specific goal or mission (for example, universities may transfer educational technologies), or if that technology would add value to a technology the government or university is hoping to transfer out to a company.
• Government laboratories and universities commonly transfer technologies to other organizations for economic development reasons (to create jobs and revenues for local firms), as an alternate source of funding, or to establish a relationship with a company that could have benefits in the future.

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:

• Patents, dealing with functional and design inventions
• Trademarks, dealing with commercial origin and identity
• Copyrights, dealing with literary and artistic expressions
• Trade secrets, which protect the proprietary capabilities of the firm

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:

• Technology scouting—this includes searching for specific technologies to buy or license.
• Technology marketing—this includes searching for buyers for a technology, the inverse of tech scouting, and also searching for collaborators, joint venture or development partners, or investors or venture capital to fund a specific technology.
• Technology assessment—this refers to evaluating technology, aimed at answering the question “what is this technology worth?” It includes research of any intellectual properties, and market and competitor assessments.
• Transfer-related activities—this involves gathering information about the transfer process itself, such as licensing terms and practices, contracts, conducting negotiations, and how to do the transfer most successfully.
• Finding experts—to assist in any of the above areas. A common saying in the field is, “technology transfer is a contact sport.”

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:

• Licensing—the exchange of access to a technology and perhaps associated skills from one company for a regular stream of cash flows from another.
• Cross-licensing—an agreement between two firms to allow each other use of or access to specific technologies owned by the firms.
• Strategic supplier agreement—a long-term supply contract, including guarantees of future purchases and greater integration of activity than a casual market relationship. One prominent example is the second-source agreements signed between semiconductor chip manufacturers.
• Contract R&D—an agreement under which one company or organization, which generally specializes in research, conducts research in a specific area on behalf of a sponsoring firm.
• Joint or cooperative R&D agreement—an agreement under which two or more companies agree to cooperate in a specific area of R&D or a specific project, coordinating research tasks across the partner firms and with sharing of research results.
• R&D corporation or research joint venture—the establishment of a separate organization, jointly owned by two or more companies, which conducts research on behalf of its owners. A notable example is Bellcore, which originally was established by the seven Regional Bell Holding Companies of the United States and which would conduct research and set standards for the local telephone system.
• Research consortium—any organization with multiple members formed to conduct joint research in a broad area, often in its own facilities and using personnel on loan from member firms and/or direct hires. The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SEMATECH) are examples of such organizations.

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 TRANSFER

Technology 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:

• Although multi-firm consortia such as SEMATECH and the Microelectronics and Computer Corporation (MCC) attract the most interest, the majority of RJVs involve only two firms.
• Most RJVs focus on developing process technologies rather than product technologies, as processes are viewed as pre-competitive technologies in many industries.
• The largest concentration of RJVs focus on telecommunications, while software and computer hardware are also leading industries for RJV activity. These industries have significant impact on technological advances in other industries, and therefore attract much interest for partnering firms. Not surprisingly, RJVs are less common in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, probably because process technologies have greater competitive impact in those industries than in others.

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 INDUSTRY

In 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:

• Transfer of product and process technologies can have a significant impact on recipient firms' business performance. For example, the invention of an improved method for delivering the medication paclitaxel was licensed by the National Institutes of Health to Bristol-Myers-Squibb as the product Taxol, which has since become a leading treatment for breast and ovarian cancer. However, there is no data to show what portion of transfers are successful versus those that are not.
• Technology transfer may or may not result in commercial products. A survey of 229 technology transfer projects at 29 federal laboratories, conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, found that 22 percent of the projects resulted in new commercial products, while 38 percent contributed to products under development. Interestingly, in 13 percent of the projects, new product development or product improvement was never a goal.
• Laboratories' views on technology transfer can affect success. Now that most of the legal barriers to technology transfer have apparently been eliminated by congressional legislation, the true barriers are generated by the culture of the laboratories and the attitudes of researchers and laboratory administrators. For example, in several cases firms have complained that laboratory researchers were not used to meeting the strict timetables on project completion that private sector researchers must observe.
• Technology transfer, especially in joint research, can aid the government laboratory as well. A report by the GAO examining ten CRADA projects found that the laboratories can also benefit from technology transfer, for example, through enhanced expertise for researchers, development of technologies that also support the laboratory's mission, acquisition of sophisticated equipment and infrastructure, and increased laboratory revenues from industrial sources.

UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

One 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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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