Home > Topics > The Policy and Legal Environment for Innovation > The Activities and Roles of M.I.T. in Forming Clusters and Strengthening Entrepreneurship > Editor's Summary, Implications and Best Practices

Although the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (M.I.T.) Technology Licensing Office may not represent the “average” model for technology transfer offices in developing countries, it nevertheless serves as an excellent standard, on many levels, for best practices, regardless of the level of maturity of the office. The fundamental structure, staffing, organization, operations, and policies that M.I.T. has so successfully implemented can be applied to developing country needs, and hence similar offices around the world can learn from the extensive experience of M.I.T.

By dynamically implementing the Bayh-Dole Act, M.I.T. has moved university-generated research from the laboratory to the private sector and ultimately to the people: public dollars are being efficiently converted into public benefit. In addition to serving the greater public interest through access to university-generated research and development, the activities of M.I.T. also enhance the greater economic development of:

• the private sector via increased profits from commercialized innovations
• the regional economy via growth and opportunity from start-up firms, “first-mover” companies, and other related enterprises
• M.I.T. via enhanced revenue form licensing revenues (which by law must be used for education and research).

Although it may not be feasible for developing countries to precisely model their technology transfer offices after M.I.T., they may still find it valuable to emulate many of its attributes. In this respect, it serves as a template to guide similar efforts: a best practices best example.

The entrepreneurial activities of the M.I.T. licensing office are also entirely consistent with the educational experience of M.I.T. students, who are actively encouraged to think outside of the box (in other words to be unconventional). In a very real sense, M.I.T. is an incubator for generation after generation of entrepreneurial engineers and scientists who, rather than cringing at the prospect, view risk as an opportunity. Seeing risk and opportunity as two sides of the same coin, students at M.I.T. don’t say, “Why do you want to do that?” but instead proclaim “Hey! Why not?” This positive attitude, this sense of self-confidence, typifies M.I.T.’s culture, from professors to students—and certainly to M.I.T.’s approach to licensing. This sort of entrepreneurial courage, where the risk of failure is not a black mark but instead actively transformed into another opportunity, is what truly fuels innovative progress. Developing countries can learn a lot from the M.I.T. experience; in other words, how risk, innovation, creativity and dynamism, and not stale business models and stultified bureaucracies, drive progress for the greater public good.

In addition to all of the above, M.I.T.’s licensing office also has served as a focal point for the formation of the biotechnology cluster in the greater Boston area. By coordinating the management of M.I.T.’s intellectual property, and thereby providing access to advances in science and engineering, M.I.T.’s licensing office contributes to the robust development of many companies that form the cluster. This creates even greater synergy for more development, economic progress, investment in innovation, and success. Once again, although Boston is not analogous to many developing country cities, nevertheless the fundamental principles that drive this economic development are universal (for example, proper IP management, dissemination of technology, and the fostering of innovation and investments that drive progress).

With respect to working with developing countries, M.I.T. recognizes that there are often special circumstances requiring creative practices (for example, preferential pricing for developing country public sectors, deciding whether or not to file patent applications in developing countries, or determining if an exclusive licensing agreement is the right approach in a specific developing country). Hence, with M.I.T. licensing, there are no rigid written policies guiding how technologies are handled; instead, the choices are left open in order to creatively craft agreements to maximize access. This type of flexible management fuels the innovation engine.

To sum it up, although the author cautions against drawing any analogies between the experience of the M.I.T. technology licensing office and similar activities in developing countries, this is perhaps a humble admonition; we can all learn from successful models and emulate the best practices that they embody, and this certainly is what M.I.T.’s licensing program offers.

Key Implications and Best Practices

Given that IP management is heavily context specific, these Key Implications and Best Practices are intended as starting points to be adapted to specific needs and circumstances.

For Government Policymakers

• A technology transfer office, strategically situated in a country’s premier research university institute, could fulfill a role in national and regional development that, although not exactly the same, would nonetheless parallel that of the M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office’s role in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area. From the broader policy perspective, it is critically import to ensure that appropriate national legislation is in place that is similar to the American Bayh-Dole Act.
• Tailored to your country’s situation, “Bayh-Dole” style legislation would facilitate capturing the value of public sector investments via creative IP management best practices, protecting home-grown innovation via appropriate types of IP rights (for example, patents, plant variety protection, trademarks, copyright, etc.), and developing and disseminating inventions and related innovation for the greater public good, possibly by establishing special technological enterprise zones.

For Senior Management (university president, R&D manager, etc)

• For a university research institute, a technology transfer office broadly modeled on the very successful M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office will facilitate sustainable management and capture the maximum value of the public sector investment in a university’s research programs. It should be in the form of an actual office, staffed with trained professionals who can implement policies and directives.
• This technology transfer office (TTO) should help create an environment that encourages administrators, scientist and students to think outside of the box (that is, accept risk, seize opportunity, and embrace innovation); understand the connection between research, development, IP management and economic progress; and respect property rights (that is, how to manage the institute’s property and correctly deal with the proprietary rights of non-institute collaborators).

For Scientists

• A technology transfer office modeled after the M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office will greatly facilitate your endeavors by serving the mission of the university, providing for the greater public good, and, importantly from your perspective, fostering an environment that will maximize investments in research and pecuniary returns.
• A return on public sector investments will be realized in several key ways, some quite specific such as licensing revenues, and others in a broader context, for example fostering longer-term economic benefits, including technology start-ups that develop university embryonic research into commercial products and processes.
• A technology transfer office (TTO) also promotes incubators and cluster areas that then feed back to bring greater benefit to the university and its research programs.

For Technology Transfer Officers

• Demonstrable and institutionalized best practices in IP management and licensing lead to research and development partnerships, technology transfer, joint projects, and revenue generated from license royalties.
• A technology transfer office (TTO) broadly modeled on the M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office would benefit you, your staff, and your research program. These benefits include access to technology, the development of innovations, and returns on investments.
• License-in technology will facilitate and accelerate your institution’s research programs.
• Negotiating collaborative agreements with other institutes or corporations will synergize creative interactions with colleagues around the world.
• By fostering down-stream development and commercialization, your TTO can promote your research program’s innovative endeavors. This will, additionally, contribute to the formation of biotechnology clusters.