Comstock's magazine 1217 - December 2017 | Page 47

THE DEBATE OVER
THE WAY FORWARD
There’s a movement afoot to make
tech-transfer licensing easier, and an
argument about whether doing so is
even the correct strategy.
On one side is a reform wing that
advocates simplifying the licens-
ing process — what Shapland says he
wanted. In the UC system, they’re rep-
resented by UC San Diego. In 2015,
the school launched a program called
Open Flow Innovation that makes it
easier for school employees to start
companies and for outside startups
to license school technologies. When
an employee-entrepreneur’s research
yields a marketable idea, the employ-
ee startup and school sign a standard
two- to three-page licensing agree-
ment that can be done in a few hours.
The terms are standard: The school
gets 5-percent equity that starts dilut-
ing after the company hits a valuation
of $2 million. The setup is designed to
favor the company, says Paul Roben,
UCSD associate vice chancellor for in-
novation and commercialization. And
the shortened process cuts licensees’
legal fees.
Roben claims the new process is
paying off in startups launched: In
the three months ending September
2017, 10 new companies were started
using technology developed at UCSD,
double the school’s previous record
for startups in a quarter. (Roben said
the school doesn’t have figures on how
many of those startups used the expe-
dited license.) And the UC Office of the
President actually helped along cre-
ation of the express license: It not only
approved the new approach but short-
ened the licensing agreement from one
that UCSD had originally proposed,
he says. That’s a sign that the UC may
be opening up to new approaches by
campus TTOs that some perceive as
more entrepreneur-friendly. (See side-
bar: “The Changing Face of UC Tech
Transfer” ).
On the other side are those who
say the current setup is mostly
working just fine. Each deal for uni-
versity IP is different, says Pathak.
A cookie-cutter approach to licenses
could actually hurt spin-offs from
inexperienced
employee-entrepre-
neurs by encouraging them to sign
licensing agreements that aren’t in
their interests, he argues. And expe-
rienced startup executives will want
to negotiate the terms: “No business
development person in a startup com-
pany who’s worth his or her salt is
Making the Grade with
Higher Education
If you’re going to do work for the region’s
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Our higher education law practice has grown
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