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More intellectual property disclosures encouraged |
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Clovia Hamilton is encouraged by the fact that faculty have shared with her 20 new disclosures of intellectual property since January, and she urges others on campus who are engaged in research to keep them coming. Previously, the university was receiving an average of only five disclosures a year. Hamilton, who came on board as director of intellectual property and research compliance last fall, says that based on its size and research activity, Old Dominion should be averaging 15 to 30 disclosures a year. "As soon as you know you're going to be developing something, let us know so we can protect it," she advises. Old Dominion's Technology Transfer Program exists to capture the results of basic research, protect them and encourage their development into marketable products and processes. Hamilton's office stands ready to assist in pursuing the licensing of patentable inventions and copyrightable works, she said, adding, "In some cases, the university is also willing to support a start-up company if we aren't able to get industry interested." Over the next few years, Hamilton would like to see Old Dominion "ramp up" to $1 million in annual royalty revenue. For this to happen, she said she will need full cooperation from both researchers and administrators. "Creators of university intellectual property must be willing to actively dialogue with industry and administrators must be willing to share their industry leads," she said. Although licensing revenues have been negligible since the Technology Transfer Program began five years ago, Hamilton remains hopeful. Since her arrival, she has been mining the campus for inventions, and in general trying to create a culture that encourages the disclosure of innovative research and creative works. Once she receives a disclosure, she evaluates it for both patentability/copyrightability and marketability, and then pursues these avenues for promising inventions and works. Over the past year, she has sent letters and packets to 500 companies worldwide and attended technology showcases, pitching both faculty inventions and ongoing research. Featured in her slick, colorful Intellectual Property packet is the research of more than a dozen faculty, including Dan Sonenshine's patented tick decoys, which are considered a great alternative to the use of environmentally hazardous pesticides. Sonenshine, who retired this spring, is an eminent scholar emeritus of biological sciences and a world-renowned authority on ticks. He co-owns three patents with researchers at the University of Florida. Also featured in the packet is Karl Schoenbach's patented bioelectrics technology, co-owned with Eastern Virginia Medical School, which involves the use of pulsed power to safely kill tumor cells, reduce fat cell numbers, and remodel bone and cartilage for medical and cosmetic purposes. Hamilton points out that there is only a one-year protected grace period to file a U.S. patent application after an invention has first been offered for sale or otherwise disclosed publicly. She said she views her primary role as that of protecting, marketing and transferring university technology into the marketplace in order to generate royalty revenue. Inventors and authors receive 50 percent of the income received from licenses, while the remainder is shared by the university and the Research Foundation. "Old Dominion is an emerging research institution, and as such is a gold mine of very valuable creations," Hamilton said. "I have been mining the campus for invention disclosures and aggressively exploiting what we have to offer." For more information about the university's technology transfer process see www.odu.edu/ao/research/IP_Main.htm. Hamilton can be reached at 683-5052 or cahamilt@odu.edu. |
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