Doug Koelemay, a regular contributor to the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine, devotes his current column to an important topic totally overlooked by the Mainstream Media: how Virginia universities treat intellectual property.
Since the time of Gov. Charles Robb in the early 1980s, Virginia’s political leaders have taken a holistic approach to economic development, recognizing the potential for state universities to conduct research and development that could be commercialized locally and provide the basis for new, knowledge-based industries. That insight led to the creation of the Center for Innovative Technology and has justified significant state support for the expansion of engineering, life sciences and other research-intensive programs at public universities.
The fly in the ointment is tech transfer. It’s one thing for state universities to conduct R&D, quite another for the intellectual property to make its way into the local business community for conversion into new businesses and jobs. Although there have been some modest success stories, university research has not had the transforming effect upon Virginia’s economy that some had hoped.
As Koelemay tells the story, a key barrier has been the uniform, top-down state policy dictating intellectual property policies for all state universities. In a 180-degree turn, the state is moving toward a system in which universities can devise policies that work best for them. Read Doug’s story here.
