ABSTRACT
There are many routes through which the findings of university 1 science and engineering research are transferred to industrial utilization, increase productivity and bring new medicines and other important products to the public. These include scientific publication, faculty consulting seminars for industry, etc., and perhaps most importantly, the graduating student, educated at the state of the art, going to work in industry; all contribute to dissemination. But for the purpose of this chapter we will use the more formal, limited definition of “technology transfer” as the protection of inventions arising from the research via patents and other forms of intellectual property (IP) and the licensing of that IP to industry. Sponsored research by industry, where IP is often an important consideration, is a closely related activity, and startup companies formed around licenses to university IP are now a very visible contribution to the US economy, particularly with the formation of regional technology clusters in biotechnology, robotics and software.
