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Summer 2003
Volume 3
Number 1
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Creating a “Technology Transfer”
Culture in the Organization
 MITRE
has always sought ways to share its technology developments with the public,
but this effort became much more productive and dynamic when we established
an official Technology Transfer Office (TTO) in 1999. The office was created
to encourage, promote, and protect MITRE technology innovations and to
help share our achievements with industry and the public. Every year,
as the TTO builds a reputation both inside and outside MITRE, it creates
more of an impact through patent applications and licensing agreements.
The goals of the TTO are to:
- Multiply the impact of our innovative prototypes by handing them
off to commercial companies to be made into products that are available,
affordable, and supportable for our sponsors and the public.
- Enhance the image of MITRE and the job satisfaction of our staff by
obtaining recognition for our technology innovations.
- When appropriate, earn licensing revenues that can help make technology
transfer a self-sustaining process supporting further research and rewarding
innovators.
Since we formalized our technology transfer approach and began promoting
it, we have seen more and more innovations being brought into the technology
transfer process by our scientists and engineers. The number of inventions
identified by MITRE employees for possible transfer has quadrupled since
2000.
In its first three years of operation, the Technology Transfer program
has licensed technologies to more than 30 companies and helped MITRE staff
identify almost 40 new patentable technologies. (MITRE currently holds
more than 55 patents and has more than 25 other innovations in various
stages of the patenting process.) MITRE- developed technologies are now
available in commercial products and services from such companies as Harris,
Cisco, Lockheed Martin, and CACI.
Some of the lessons we have learned over the years about what it takes
to establish an effective technology transfer culture within an organization
include:
- All technical staff and project leaders should have a basic knowledge
of the technology transfer process. Sometimes, the greatest innovators
in an organization remain unaware of the possibilities for promoting
and protecting their work.
- For not-for-profit organizations such as MITRE, transferring technology
means building new kinds of relationships and working arrangements.
While these relationships are appropriate and even mandated by government
rules (i.e., Bayh-Dole), they also entail a change in culture for employees
who have always assumed that it is solely the responsibility of government
to apply and manage the innovations they have created.
- During any case of technology transfer it is important for the inventor/licensee
to consider how best to protect his or her intellectual property—through
patents, copyrights, trademarks, or trade secrets.
- Technology transfer is a continuous learning process for all participants—as
the articles in this issue will demonstrate.
For more information or discussion about this material, please Contact Us.
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