CARRIERE, Michael

Abstract: The University of California (UC), based on its mission as a land grant university, has a long history of seeking intellectual property protection for its research discoveries and managing those technologies for the public benefit. By some measures, the UC technology transfer program is the largest public program in the world. The program has evolved over the years but has always been at the forefront of intellectual property protection. This article focuses on the history, policy, and organizational framework of the UC technology transfer program, and the information discussed herein may be instructive to administrators and others seeking to learn from the UC experiences. The program has been administered through six functional departments: Information Technology and Communications, General Counsel (legal), Licensing, Patent Prosecution, Financial Management, and Policy Analysis and Development. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the UC technology transfer system is the development of a distributed institutional network of ten university campuses, which operate under a common policy framework and share resources. At the same time, each office functions relatively independently of the others. This structure could be emulated and implemented at different scales, from a relatively small-scale research consortium made up of a network of institutions, to a larger-scale national network of universities, to a global-scale international network of research institutions linked by common policies and objectives.

Abstract: The strawberry improvement program located at the University of California, Davis focuses on breeding cultivars for the strawberry industry in California, yet today it supports the majority of production of fresh-market strawberries globally. Around the world, UPOV-compliant Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) are the most common form of IP protections sought by University of California (UC) to protect its strawberry cultivars. Inside the U.S. and Canada, cultivars are licensed on a nonexclusive basis directly to nurseries. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, UC relies on business partners, referred to as “master licensees,” as intermediaries. A master licensee is provided with exclusive rights within a defined territory that includes the right to issue nonexclusive sublicenses to nurseries within that territory. Overall, a three-tier royalty structure is utilized, with growers inside California paying the least, growers in the U.S. outside of California and in Canada pay slightly more, and all other growers pay even more, a percentage of which is shared with the master licensee. The ultimate future of the UC strawberry breeding program is tied to the continued development of competitive cultivars, but the team is highly skilled and, partly due to the licensing program, funding is stable.