Ed Silverman's "The Trouble with Tech Transfer" does not put the subject in context and focuses only on anecdotal evidence. Academic tech transfer offices were set up by institutions in response to the Bayh-Dole Act, which The Economist called "possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century."
The results continue to this day: The forthcoming Association of University Technology Managers annual survey will record, for fiscal year 2005, 28,349 current, active commercialization licenses. Each represents a university-company relationship to develop a product to benefit people. There have been 3,641 such new products in the marketplace since 1998 and 5,171 new spinout companies based on academic research created since 1980, each creating economic activity in its region.
In the United States, this is an enormous endeavor, involving more than 190 research universities in all 50 states. Add the tech transfer opportunities pouring out ...
