Technology Transfer and Development

• Author: Cynthia Cannady,
• Position: IP and New Technologies Division

- A new take on an old proverb

Technology transfer is much discussed but is defined in different ways depending on the context. This article focuses on technology transfer in universities and research institutions, and describes WIPO’s practical approach to technology transfer in the context of the Organization’s work to promote the strategic use of IP for economic development.

For most universities and research institutions technology transfer is defined in the words of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) as "the process of transferring scientific findings from one organization to another for the purpose of further development and commercialization." This transfer is generally effected by means of IP licensing agreements (contracts) between universities and private companies or publicly owned commercialization agencies.

In the licensing agreement, the university or research center grants a permission (license) to use the IP in a newly developed technology to a private sector licensee or a "spin off" company in exchange for royalties or other payments. IP rights permit the university to own and control the use of its research results, and so are the basis for technology transfer in this sense.

Universities receive a revenue stream from such technology transfers which, according to the AUTM Annual Licensing Survey, amounts to more than US$ 1 billion a year for U.S. institutions alone. Recent years have seen a rapid expansion in the number of technology transfer offices set up by universities to manage this process. In some cases, the technology transfer is reciprocal, and the research institution and licensee exchange and co-develop technologies.

The multilateral context

As of 2003, more than 80 international instruments contained provisions on transfer of technology,¹ and this number is increasing. In the context of UN and other multilateral agreements, technology transfer has often been viewed as a "transfer in" process by which developing countries seek to gain access to technical goods and know-how imported from the developed world. The idea of licensing intangible assets like IP is often not addressed, nor is the potential for reciprocal exchange. Yet the intangible asset, like the fishing rod design in the revisited proverb above, can be the key to sustainability.

But this...