8. Transfer of Technology to Market and Commercial Exploitation of Results - Alessandro Cattelan (Translated)

Transfer of technology to market and commercial exploitation of results

Alessandro Cattelan, Translated srl

[[email protected]]

What is technology transfer?

Stakeholders in technology transfer

Technology transfer process

Opportunity recognition

Strategies for the transfer of technology

A real-life case study: MateCat

Overview

The commercial development of research ideas and

intellectual property into commercially viable products or

processes that meet defined market needs

[Dr Nick Bourne, Deputy Director and Head of Commercial Development, University of Cardiff]

What is technology transfer?

Technology transfer aims at bringing the results of research laboratories to

public use and benefits. The conversion of scientific findings into commercial

products or processes is a way to bring innovative technologies to the society.

Think of it as a bridge

Research Labs

Society

Innovation

The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or

service that creates value or for which customers will pay.

[http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovation.html]

Innovation

http://youtu.be/ibfrzjb_fB0

Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property and Science - The Innovation Lifecycle




Stakeholders

The patient

The research scientist

The R&D specialist

The drug developer

The IP attorney

General public.

Users and

consumers who will

benefit from the

innovation and

technology transfer

Research

community.

Researchers who

carry out the

scientific work

needed to create

innovation

Market.

Entrepreneurs,

technology transfer

offices, attorneys

who make

commercialization

possible

General public: Technology transfer brings innovation to public

use and benefit, improving people’s lives.

Research community: Technology transfer attracts funding and

generates revenue for universities and research centres.

Market: Technology transfer creates opportunities to start new

companies, create new jobs and generate wealth.

Advantages

Technology transfer process

University, Research centres

Technology Transfer

Licensing

Spin-out

Start-up

Market

Opportunity recognition

Searching for valuable technological applications and

designing a viable route to deliver those applications in

the form of tradable products and goods.

[C. Franzoni, Opportunity recognition in technology transfer organizations, Int Entrep Manag J, 2007, 3:51-67]

2 + 2 ≠ 4

Technology Transfer Organizations

Industrial liaison offices, Campus ventures, Offices for

Technology transfer: they act as an intermediary between

the faculty members and firms or other potential investors

interested in acquiring the technological assets.


Technology Transfer Organizations

TTOs tasks include:

Screening of prior-art

Filing patent applications

Licensing

Procurement of research sponsorship or other research agreements

with firms

Creation of spin-off companies


Strategies for the transfer of technology

Innovation discovered or created at universities or research centres

Licensing Spin-out Start-up

Licensing

Most common way to transfer technology from the university sector to

the market.

University may charge an initial payment and receive royalties for the

right to use intellectual property

The university and academic capitalise on the technology but do not

have to commit lots of time to commercialization

[Andy Lockett et al., Technology transfer and Universities’ Spin-Out Strategies, Small Business Economics, 2003, 20:185-200]

Licensing

Drawbacks:

Licensing agreements are only applicable to assets that can be

protected by intellectual property law

University may not be able to capture the full value of their technology


Spin-out

Spinning out a company means a more direct involvement in the

commercialization of the new technology

Equity ownership from interested parties from within and outside the

university (external managers/entrepreneurs)

Taking equity in a spin-out company produces a greater average return

in the long run compared to licensing


Spin-out

Risks:

Commercially inexperienced academic inventors may focus too much

on the technical aspects of the innovation to the detriment of business

dimensions

If the academic inventor does not leave the university, he/she will have

to balance academic and business functions

[Andy Lockett et al., Technology transfer and Universities’ Spin-Out Strategies, Small Business Economics, 2003, 20: 185-200]

Start-up

The start-up model is, to some extent, similar to the spin-out

model

Main difference is that entrepreneurs and managers come from

outside the university

Risks for starting up a company fall entirely on the entrepreneur

and the new company

Start-up

Technology is acquired purchasing licenses or selling shares of

the start-up (equity ownership)

Funding to develop the technology and build the company is

provided by investors (angel investors or venture capitalists) or

by revenue generated by the company

A real-life case study: MateCat

Project funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme

Three-year long project with partners from academia and industry:

o Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy

o Translated srl, Italy

o Université du Maine, France

o University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

here comes the ugliest slide of all

Project goals

Effectively and ergonomically integrate Machine Translation (MT) within the human

translation workflow. Develop an enhanced web-based CAT tool that will offer new MT

capabilities, such as automatic adaption to the translated content, online learning from

user corrections, and automatic quality estimation.

The project builds on state-of-the-art MT and CAT technologies created by the project

members, such as Moses, the most popular open source statistical MT toolkit, and

MyMemory, the world’s largest Translation Memory (TM) built collaboratively via MT and

human contributions.

Our ultimate goal is to create new CAT technology that will significantly enhance the

productivity and user experience of professional translators. Hence, progress of MateCat

will be systematically assessed involving professional translators, working on real

translation projects, and evaluating the utility and usability of our solutions.

Current status

MateCat has been released as open source software and

has been used by third parties to build ad hoc solutions

(e.g. CasmaCat)

The technology has been used to translate over 35 million

words in little more than a year

Funding for the EU project will end in October 2014

Life after funding

Create a new company to continue development and

commercialization

Offer shares of the company to academic partners for

their research

Raise capital or generate revenue to finance the start-

up

Any questions?

Education

8. Transfer of Technology to Market and Commercial Exploitation of Results - Alessandro Cattelan (Translated)