How the UC system is making patents pay off

By Larry Gordon

As they consider ways to improve university revenues, campus administrators point to the life-saving hepatitis B vaccine, the nicotine patch that helps smokers quit their habit and the tasty Camarosa strawberry. Those patented innovations, all pioneered at the University of California, have earned the school system, and the faculty who developed them, more than $500 million.

As a result of these successes and others, colleges around the country are placing more attention and resources on helping researchers obtain patents for their inventions and then market them to private industry for what they hope will be lucrative licensing fees, royalties and stock holdings.

Throughout academia, many colleges are establishing and expanding offices that help with such "technology transfer," hiring experts to advise faculty to become more entrepreneurial and even holding campus competitions for marketable ideas.