A new UC report has found that the university has seen a steady increase in nationally issued patents in the past four years.
The UC Technology Transfer Annual Report 2011, which has not yet been publicly released, shows that the number of UC patents has steadily increased from 224 patents in 2008 to 343 patents in 2011. The report shows that UC Berkeley ranks third in active patents among UC campuses, behind UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.
According to the report, the UC has generated a total of about $155.4 million from its top 25 inventions and about $182.1 million from all of its inventions combined since their creation.
Of the revenue that the UC generates through patent-related projects, the money is divided between the inventors and the university in order to support research and education, according to UC spokesperson Brooke Converse. According to Irvin Mettler, associate director of the campus Office of Technology Licensing, researchers and faculty have created start-up companies or sold licensed research to other companies after receiving patent licenses for their research.
However, despite the increase in UC patents, the number of start-up companies produced has decreased, falling from 75 to 58 from 2011 to 2012, the report states.
Over the past two decades, the UC has ranked highly in comparison to other universities in its patent output. According to Converse, 2010 marked the 17th consecutive year the UC has topped all universities in the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s annual report, which is based on data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
A 2011 report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization stated that the UC system was the largest patent applicant internationally among universities. The UC placed 39th overall among companies and other nonacademic institutions in patent applications. The top 50 institutions ranked were all corporations and companies such as Qualcomm, Microsoft and Sony, except for the UC.
“The report from WIPO confirms UC’s leadership in intellectual property management and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that the technological breakthroughs created in UC’s researchers are protected,” said William Tucker, executive director of Innovation Alliances and Services at the UC Office of the President, in an email.
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