Information Overview:
UCSF Office of Technology Management

The information below comprises a brief overview of the UCSF Office of Technology Management. The OTM website offers additional information on many of these topics, links to related sites, downloadable forms, staff biographies, and information on University policies. Licensing professionals at the UCSF OTM, who all have PhDs in the biological sciences, can be reached by calling the office at 514-9637.

Mission and Goals
The Office of Technology Management is responsible for managing and commercializing technologies developed at UCSF, with a mission statement to promote the transfer of UCSF's life science and medical technologies for public use and benefit, while generating income to support campus research and education. UCSF investigators, as well as visiting scientists who use UCSF resources, have a contractual obligation to promptly report and fully disclose the conception and/or reduction to practice of potentially patentable inventions to the Office of Technology Management (OTM). UC Patent Acknowledgment agreement

The OTM seeks to commercialize UCSF inventions in order to serve the UCSF research community and public interests; adhere to University policy, the law, and sound business practices; and educate the campus community about intellectual property and entrepreneurship. The OTM helps establish and implement system-wide intellectual property policies by working through the UC Office of the President and other campus-based licensing offices. The OTM operates as a pragmatic, opportunistic, deal-oriented, entrepreneurial business that the campus expects to be financially self-sufficient.

It is in the best interests of UCSF investigators to work closely with the OTM to: commercialize new inventions; facilitate the founding of start-up companies based on technology invented at UCSF; receive guidance on intellectual property matters related to academic and industry collaborations and to sponsored research funding; manage potential conflicts in licensing arising from sponsored funding and the use of third-party proprietary materials; and facilitate the sharing of UCSF-developed non-human biological research materials.

Background
Historically, the federal government owned and managed patent rights to inventions that universities developed using federal money. In 1980, Congress passed a law that made it possible for universities to take title to their patentable inventions. Initially, the University of California conducted its licensing activities through a centralized, system-wide office known as the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), currently located in the Office of the President in Oakland. Over the years, experience seems to have dictated that company, inventor, and campus needs could be better served through decentralized, campus-based licensing offices.

In 1990, UC Berkeley established its own campus-based licensing operation and since then other campuses have followed suit. The San Diego, Irvine, Los Angeles, Davis, and San Francisco campuses now have their own licensing offices, as do the three national laboratories managed by The Regents of the University of California (Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos). The OTT still provides services to support the campus-based licensing offices and handles the licensing activities of those UC campuses that do not have their own technology transfer operations.

UCSF established its own campus office in 1996: the UCSF Office of Technology Management (OTM). Historically, UCSF's license income has accounted for well over half of the UC system's total license income. For the year ending June 2000, three out of UC's five top-earning commercialized inventions came from UCSF and grossed $32M (out of $40M earned by the top 5 inventions).

Services Provided to Investigators

1. Advice/guidance related to working with industry, including information on confidentiality agreements, sponsored research, collaborations (funded and unfunded), material transfers, and venture capital. Some of these relationships are managed by other units within UCSF, but the OTM can evaluate and put you in direct contact with the most appropriate unit.

    

2. Review and negotiation of:
   Outgoing Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) for non-human biological materials: Required to accompany the transfer of tangible, non-human research materials out of the University. (To make the process simpler for UCSF investigators, all MTAs -- incoming and outgoing -- may be submitted to the OSR, which will transfer specific outgoing MTAs to the OTM as appropriate.)
   
   Confidentiality Agreements (CDAs) covering the disclosure of UCSF proprietary information (note that the OSR negotiates CDAs as well; contact either the OTM or the OSR with a CDA, and that office will make certain that your agreement is managed by the appropriate unit)

    

3. Management of new invention disclosures:
   Assessment and evaluation of the technology, the business opportunity, and the competitive advantage the invention affords
   Discussions of the technology with inventors
   Development and implementation of a marketing/commercialization plan
   Review and negotiation of Inter-institutional Agreements: Necessary for the management of technology with co-inventors from multiple academic institutions
   License negotiations with interested companies
   Securing intellectual property protection, as appropriate
   Administering the license to insure compliance with its terms and conditions

Related Negotiating Units at UCSF

Office of Sponsored Research (OSR), (Katherine Ho, Director):

• Industry Contracts Division, (Kelly Dinglasan, Asst. Director)
  Material transfer agreements from for-profit and non-profit entities, collaboration agreements (industry and academia), confidentiality agreements related to agreements handled by this Division, industry-funded research contracts and grants for clinical trials, sponsored research agreements, UC Discovery grants.
  
• Contracts and Grants Division, (Joan Kaiser, Assoc. Director)
  Extramural sponsored research/training/clinical trial/public service projects awarded by federal, state, and local government and non-profit sponsors.