When to Consider Technology Transfer?
Selling your intellectual property and partnering with an established player to commercialize your unique know-how can sometimes be the fastest, most efficient, and most profitable way of monetizing intellectual property. Technology transfer is often the optimal path forward when one or more of the following criteria are met:
LARGE ESTABLISHED PLAYERS
A large and established player can be both a fierce competitor or a uniquely capable partner. A large company benefits from access to capital, know-how, and relationships with customers. The more such players exist, the more likely they are to compete for exclusive rights to your technology, increasing the value of your intellectual property.
HIGH BARRIERS TO ENTRY
High barriers to entry in an industry increase the capital requirements for a start-up to successfuly break-in, leaving the founders with less equity, more risks, and more operational challenges. An established partner can help new entrants leapfrog existing barriers by allowing new companies to take advantage of the partner’s infrastructure.
STRONG IP PROTECTIONS
Technology transfer transactions are best suited for situations in which most of the critical intellectual property is protected by patents and trademarks as opposed to trade secrets.
TECH-FOCUSED FOUNDERS
New companies face daunting business challenges in their infancies, distracting science-focused founders from their core competency of inventing the next generation solutions.
Benefits of Technology Transfer
Faster Monetization
Growing a new company requires years of investment and bootstrapping, with benefits significantly deffered. Due to the time-value of money, a tech transfer transaction may be more profitable for most founders.
Lower Risk
Early stage companies are amongst the most vulnerable. They force founders to balance competing needs — developing technology, recruiting staff, gaining market access, operations. Each represents a significant source of risk.
Focus On Science
For science-focused founders, tech transfer is a great way to focus on advancing their technology and continuing to innovate. Tech transfer lets the corporate partner to worry about day-to-day operations, while letting founders focus on IP.
Contact us
Get in touch with us and we can help you explore whether a technology transfer opportunity is right for you.