UW-Madison among top ten license income earners in 2002

UW–Madison and its patent management organization, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), were among the top 10 universities in the country last year in the amount of royalties and other license income received on inventions created by university researchers.

According to the latest survey of university licensing activity published by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), UW–Madison and WARF ranked seventh in gross license income in 2002, up from 11th place in 2001. A total of 156 universities, including 92 percent of the top research institutions in the country, participated in the annual survey.

WARF also signed 156 new license deals last year, the third-highest number in the nation.

“One of WARF’s greatest strengths is that we work with one of the best research universities in the country,” says Bryan Renk, WARF’s director of licensing. “As UW–Madison continues to rise in both the quantity and quality of research it conducts, we’ve definitely benefited in terms of the amount of technology we can transfer to industry.”

Renk estimates that more than $1 billion in products based on UW–Madison research were sold last year under license from WARF. The foundation currently manages more than 650 active license agreements with companies around the world.

The top five university license income earners according to the AUTM survey were Columbia University, the University of California system (which includes all 10 UC campuses), New York University, Florida State University and Stanford. The only other Midwestern school to crack the top 10 was Michigan State University, which placed ninth.

In addition to placing near the top in licensing activity in 2002, UW–Madison and WARF also ranked eighth in the number of U.S. patent applications filed, fifth in U.S. patents issued and sixth in the number of inventions reported by university researchers, the survey showed.

WARF is a private, non-profit organization that patents discoveries made by UW–Madison inventors and licenses the technologies to companies for commercialization. Each year, the foundation returns all the gross licensing revenues it receives to the university in the form of a grant, which UW–Madison uses primarily to support research.

“At the end of the day, WARF exists to help transform technology into products that benefit society and to support the UW–Madison’s research efforts,” says Renk. “So we’re very pleased to be ranked in the top 10 in so many categories – it indicates we’re doing our best to fulfill our mission.”

AUTM’s annual ranking of U.S. university technology transfer offices is considered to be the most comprehensive in the country. Each year, the international association of technology managers collects data on the licensing activities of its constituency to track trends and to document the public benefit and economic impact of technology transfer.