Posts Tagged: "Jane Muir"

MUIR: “There are approximately 40 countries around the world that have enacted their own version of the Bayh-Dole legislation because they have seen the numbers. They have seen the success that the United States has had in commercializing these discoveries. We truly are the envy of the rest of the world. In three or four months I’m going to be visiting about six different countries. What they want to hear about is how is the U.S. achieving this level of success. So oftentimes we look at our own backyard and don’t have a full appreciation of the beautiful flowers growing there but there are lots of beautiful flowers growing in our tech transfer profession in the United States.”

Jane Muir, AUTM President: “[U]niversities are not the next patent troll because at the end of the day, university tech transfer offices were put into place to ensure that the new discoveries that happen in the research laboratories ultimately get out into the marketplace by way of product and services that improve the human condition. The big difference is with patent trolls. They’re not interested in commercializing discoveries. They’re interested in using those patents to sue legitimate companies who do want to move those products into the market. From the commercialization standpoint that really is the fundamental difference. Patent trolls have no real interest in commercializing. Their interest is in litigating.”

Jane Muir, AUTM President: “[T]he majority of all the discoveries that come out of universities and research institutions are very early stage. They’re at the stage where they’re patentable. They are a new discovery, but they’re not yet a product. In order to get them from that patentable early discovery stage to a product that can actually be taken to the market requires an additional investment of time and money, whether it be to develop a prototype or proof of concept. It could be animal studies or all of those things that need to happen to actually create the product out of the new invention. That’s why the patent system that we have in the United States is so important because without proper patent protection, there’s no real incentive for companies and investors to invest in those very early stage technologies without the patent protection.”