For the 12th consecutive year, the University of California is the leader among the nation’s universities in developing new patents, according to a report announced last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The report presents a preliminary list of the U.S. universities receiving the most patents for invention (i.e., utility patents) during the 2004 calendar year.
Last year, UC recorded a total of 390 patents. The final list is expected in December 2006.
“America 's economic strength and global leadership depend on continued technological advances,” said Jon Dudas, under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “Groundbreaking discoveries and patented inventions generated by innovative minds at academic institutions have paid enormous dividends, improving the lives and livelihoods of generations of Americans.”
Notable UC patents have included the hepatitis-B vaccine, treatments for aneurysms, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, inner ear implants, the nicotine patch, aids for the learning disabled, and a wide variety of new types of fruits and vegetables, including strawberries, citrus, and asparagus.
In California, UC research and work force development has been crucial in the state’s economic growth and global competitiveness, especially in the key industry clusters of biotechnology, telecommunications, information technology and electronics manufacturing. More than 300 R&D-intensive firms in California have been founded by UC scientists and engineers.
In biotech, one in three California R&D firms – and one in six publicly traded firms nationwide – was founded by UC scientists, and 85 percent employ UC alumni with graduate degrees. In communications, information technology and networking, one in six California R&D firms was founded by a UC scientist or engineer, and 57 percent employ UC alumni in key executive positions. More than 1,000 California R&D-intensive companies actively engage in research projects with UC scientists and students.
The 10-campus UC system is highly successful in transferring patented technologies to firms that commercialize them, developing new products and services with the potential to give a competitive market edge and lead to company growth and job creation. UC also fuels competitiveness by educating a continuous stream of next-generation innovators, entrepreneurs and highly skilled R&D workers. UC produces nearly 7 percent of the nation’s approximately 41,000 new Ph.D.’s a year.
In FY 2004-05, over 1,300 new inventions were disclosed by UC faculty and researchers. Overall, the UC system's invention portfolio is comprised of nearly 7,400 active inventions. Total licensing revenues, the income received from UC agreements with industry, was $109.6 million in FY 2004-05, a portion of which is re-invested back into research and education on UC campuses. Many of these cutting-edge R&D projects are in fields directly related to the knowledge industry clusters and thus amplify many of the productivity gains arising from UC research.
During this decade, UC research is also expected to continue to be a major source of productivity gains through California’s R&D industries, adding $5.2 billion and more than 114,000 new jobs in California (2002-11). Whether it is a new variety of strawberry or the next generation of fuel-efficient automobiles, UC moves quickly to advance innovation and discovery from the laboratory to the marketplace and into our homes.
For the patent office’s Top 10:
www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/06-24.htm
For more information about UC research, technology transfer and UC-industry partnerships: www. ucop.edu/ott/ars/ann04/ar04.pdf
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/research/techtransfer.html
http://ucdiscoverygrant.org
For more about the economic and health care impacts of UC research:
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/itstartshere/main.html
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Breakdown of patents by campus, FY 2004-05
Berkeley 44
Davis 49
Irvine 26
Los Angeles 34
Riverside 8
Santa Barbara 38
Santa Cruz 6
San Diego 60
San Francisco 52
UC-Managed National Laboratories:
Los Alamos (LANL) 48
Berkeley (LBNL) 34
Livermore (LLNL) 93