Understanding the roles and involvement of technology transfer offices in the commercialization of university research

Abstract

Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) can play important roles in university-based innovation processes, for example, by handling patenting issues and providing advice about funding. This study explores how patentability and ownership of academic inventions are connected to the roles and involvement of TTOs in commercialization of medical inventions. This in-depth exploration of four invention cases from two universities found that the number of TTO roles is related to patentability (i.e., patentable inventions entail more TTO roles than non-patentable inventions), that the types of TTO roles are related to ownership (i.e., university-owned inventions entail more common roles than inventor-owned inventions), and TTO involvement in an innovation process is more related to patentability than to ownership (i.e., non-patentable inventions entail higher involvement than patentable inventions). We map the roles and divide them into two categories: intellectual property (IP) sheltering and intellectual property (IP) pushing. These categories align with previous understandings concerning TTO roles and contribute to theoretical and conceptual clarity. IP pushing is related more to inventor ownership than IP sheltering and IP sheltering is related more to university ownership than IP pushing.