Legal Definitions - technology transfer

Technology transfer refers to the process of sharing or moving intellectual property, such as inventions, designs, software, or specialized knowledge, from one organization or individual to another. This often happens through formal agreements like sales, licenses, or joint ventures, with the aim of developing new products, services, or applications, or to generate revenue.

Here are some examples illustrating technology transfer:

• A large biotechnology firm develops a groundbreaking new gene-editing technique but decides to focus its resources on drug development rather than agricultural applications. It then licenses its patented gene-editing technology to an agricultural science company. This allows the agricultural company to use the technique to develop disease-resistant crops, while the biotech firm receives royalties from the license.

  This illustrates technology transfer because the intellectual property (the patented gene-editing technique) is formally moved from one company to another through a licensing agreement, enabling its application in a new commercial sector.

• A government-funded research laboratory invents a highly efficient method for converting waste plastics into usable fuel. Instead of commercializing this process themselves, they offer the patent rights for sale to private energy companies. An innovative startup purchases these rights, intending to build and operate facilities that implement this new conversion technology on a large scale.

  Here, the intellectual property (the patented waste-to-fuel conversion method) is transferred from a government entity to a private company through a sale, allowing for its commercial development and deployment.

• An independent software developer creates a unique algorithm that significantly improves data compression for streaming video. A major streaming service company recognizes the algorithm's potential to reduce bandwidth costs and enhance user experience. They acquire the full rights to the algorithm, including its source code and any associated patents, from the developer.

  This is an example of technology transfer where the intellectual property (the video compression algorithm and its associated rights) is transferred from an individual inventor to a commercial enterprise through an acquisition, allowing the company to integrate and utilize the innovation.