University of Wisconsin Takes Patents to San Diego

A public entity setting up a satellite office for promotion and business recruitment is not new. Many state economic development departments have done it for years in foreign countries to encourage international trade. State film promotion boards do it in Hollywood to attract movie projects to their home states.

But the University of Wisconsin has added a twist to the field office concept that is new and perhaps somewhat controversial.

The San Diego Union Tribune reported last week that the University of Wisconsin was establishing a patent licensing office in San Diego. The decision is reportedly the first of its kind by a U.S. academic institution.

From the casual observer's perspective, the decision may appear completely logical and a bit shrewd. San Diego is recognized as one of the nation's leading hotbeds for biotechnology, and the University of Wisconsin is a top medical research institution based on the amount of federal R&D funding it captures each year. Putting the two together to spin off more technology makes sense.

Across the country, states and academic leaders are pushing research universities to commercialize more technology and raise additional sources of revenue. With more than 150 spinoff companies to its credit, the University of Wisconsin is one of the more successful schools for turning technology developed within its labs into commercial products in the marketplace. According to the article, the new satellite patent office, armed with a portfolio of 1,600 technologies, will be looking to negotiate licenses with San Diego biotech firms.

A strong research university with a track record for licensing and a metro area ripe with biotech firms with which to partner are key ingredients for successful technology-based economic development. Reports such as the Milken Institute's America's High-Tech Economy: Growth Development, and Risks for Metropolitan Areas highlight the prominent role a research university plays on local technology-based economic development.

But when the commercialization occurs more than 2,000 miles away from the main campus, eyebrows are raised by at least a few observers in the field.

The university's prominence in biomedical research is the cornerstone of the state's $317 million public-private BioStar initiative, launched in 2000. Over an eight-year period, the state is providing matching funds to update, expand and create new research laboratories in the university system to support biotech research.

Touting the program in a State of the State address, then-Governor Tommy Thompson said, "The science being developed in our University laboratories is spawning new companies that make the technology and products, bringing new discoveries to the marketplace."

SSTI Annual Conference Plug

How can the returns on states' technology-based economic development investments be maximized if the commercialization and production of its universities' technology occurs outside the state's boundaries? How do states and universities achieve balance between their shared goals of strengthening the universities, capturing greater licensing revenues, and encouraging economic development?

These are the types of issues that will be discussed at SSTI's 6th Annual Conference Building Tech-based Economies: From Policy to Practice on October 2-3 in Dearborn, Michigan. One-fourth of the conference breakout sessions are focused on strengthening the university component of technology-based economic development. More information is available at: http://www.ssti.org/conference02.htm [expired]