Final Words

At the heart of a successful tech transfer program is the trust between the faculty and the university personnel shepherding the invention toward viability and the commercial world. Without that trust, far less technology will be disclosed by researchers, faculty will be less willing to cooperate with the OTT, and unseen "leakage" of inventions into the private sector will be more common. Although our setting is academic and not corporate, it is appropriate to recall the words attributed to John Patterson, founder of NCR Corporation, who said nearly a hundred years ago that the only assets a company really has are people, ideas, and relationships.