AUTM on the Air

After working as an interrogator for the US Army and running a scuba shop (among other things), Trina spent 15 years working in technology transfer departments at educational institutions before moving to the Portland VA Medical Center, where she is currently a Technology Transfer Specialist (and the only VA technology transfer professional in the state of Oregon).  Although her title contains the...

For the last episode of the year, we are doing a deep dive into what AUTM’s 2022 advocacy activities have consisted of. It was a fruitful and energizing year for AUTM (though not without its fair share of challenges), and there is nobody better than today’s guest, Mike Waring, to share this overview with us. Mike has been involved in Washington politics for over 40 years and is currently a consult...

With a PhD and 20 years of experience working in the semiconductor field, Dr. Victor Lau makes for the perfect middleman between industry and academia. Today, he is the Associate Director of the Knowledge Transfer Office at the City University of Hong Kong. In this episode, Victor gives us insight into what technology transfer looks like in Hong Kong, how his office supports inventors and entrepre...

There is a common and dangerous misconception that IP rights merely serve as a way for big companies in wealthy countries to acquire more wealth. This is one of the key drivers behind the movement to expand the TRIPS waiver. During this episode, the Senior Vice President of the US Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), Patrick Kilbride, explains why the TRIPS Agreement c...

In the period following World War 2, government policy stipulated that whenever anything was invented using government funding, it would be put into the public domain. This may sound like an honorable idea, but the problem was that nothing was being commercialized because there was no incentive to do so. Since 1980, thanks to the Bayh-Dole Act, the commercialization of inventions has been in the h...

Tribal communities comprise 4.3% of the Arizona population, but less than 1% of businesses in the state are Native American owned. Through the Native FORGE program, Brian Ellerman’s goal is to change that.  They only received funding for the first time in September 2022, but through the success of the Native FORGE conference, the positive responses they have received from indigenous communities so...

The Czech Republic may be a small country, but they are certainly not a small player in the technology transfer field. And that is largely thanks to today’s guest, Růžena Štemberková. Růžena is the Head of the TTO at the University of South Bohemia, the vice chair of Transfera.cz, and a member of a number of well-established technology transfer organizations.  During our conversation, Růžena talks...

Technology transfer has the ability to bring about enormous positive benefits for the world, and with the multitude of issues that we are currently facing, we need technology transfer professionals more than ever. The Director of Technology Management and Innovation at Khalifa University is Dr. Sami Bashir, our guest on today’s episode. During our conversation, Sami shares how his passion for R&am...

For the past 30 years, Matthew Bryan has played an integral role in the growth and innovation that has taken place at WIPO. Since he joined the organization as a young IP lawyer, it has grown from around 50 member states to 156!  Matthew is the Director of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Legal and User Relations Division, heading up a 30-person strong team who hail from countries from Morocco...

Out of 65 applicants across seven countries, the winner of the 2022 Better World Project was a lithium-ion battery recycling process that was invented by Yan Wang and commercialized by Todd Keiller and his Technology Commercialization team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).  When the invention came across his desk, Todd’s first thought was, “Boy, this looks dangerous,” but when he began to...

In honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day, I'm speaking with David Petite, a proud Native American and a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribe. He is also a founder of the Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council, a non-profit organization helping Native American inventors and communities. He's also a technology pioneer. He was a co-founder of StatSig...

Welcome to the first episode of AUTM on the Air. This episode is brought to you by Wellspring, a leading provider of Innovation Ops software. I’m excited to be talking to Bethany Loftin, an Interagency Policy & iEdison Specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We’ll be talking about the recent redesign of iEdison, the online platform used to report taxpayer-funde...

Today we have the pleasure of hearing from Theo Edmonds, JD, MHA, MFA. Theo is a co-founder of CU Denver’s Imaginator Academy, a cultural analytics strategy and futurist innovation hub. Theo is a skilled, energetic, culture futurist, and innovator with 25 years of senior level strategic national and international leadership experience, spent in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. As direc...

Today’s guest hails from a small country in the heart of Europe which most people know little about. Luxembourg’s economy was once based on agriculture and coal mining, but central to its success today is its thriving innovation ecosystem that is geared towards the creation and transfer of knowledge. Christophe Haunold is the Head of Partnership, Knowledge, and Technology Transfer at the Universit...

The collaborations that were formed during the COVID-19 pandemic epitomize the value of technology transfer and intellectual property. In today’s episode, Jennifer Brant, the Executive Director of the Innovation Council and the co-author of Unprecedented: The Rapid Innovation Response to COVID-19 and the Role of Intellectual Property , joins us to explain why!  After providing an overview of the d...

This episode is brought to you from the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland.  Julio Raffo and Elodie Carpentier, Head of the Innovation Economy Section of the Department for Economics and Data Analytics at WIPO, and postdoc research fellow at WIPO respectively, are my guests on the show today.  Join us for a discussion around WIPO’s diverse ra...

TTO Iceland is proof that when it comes to the ability to make an impact, size doesn’t matter! Prior to the founding of TTO Iceland at the end of 2018, technology transfer was non-existent in Iceland. But thanks to today’s guests, Einar Mantyla and Susan Christianen, the country’s scientists and entrepreneurs now have a much greater chance of impacting society both nationally and internationally. ...

August 9th, 2022 was a monumental day for technology transfer! On this day, President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science bill into law, allocating $3.1 billion to help research organizations strengthen their capacity for technology transfer. This is the first time that the US Federal Government has authorized funding of technology transfer staff, patent and licensing expenses, and the like.  In to...

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) is one of the key players in what has become known as the Silicon Valley of Food and Agriculture, or “Food Valley.” For seven years in a row, WUR has ranked number one for agricultural sciences, and it currently also holds the top spot in environmental science and food technology.  Furthermore, it is the only institution in the world that combines fundament...

Will Charles and Nicola Johnstone, Executive Director and Head of IP at UniServices respectively, join us on the podcast this week to discuss how New Zealand’s largest university is making waves in the technology transfer space (for the last 2 years it was ranked number one in Time’s Higher Education University Impact Ratings!). UniServices is the University of Auckland’s technology transfer offic...

This episode of AUTM on the Air is currently unavailable. In the meantime, be sure to check out one of our other interviews with patent and licensing professionals, innovators, entrepreneurs, and tech transfer leaders that focus on the issues and trends that matter most.

Heartland Forward isn’t just a think tank, it’s a think and do tank! After spending 20 years as Chief Research Officer at the Milken Institute, today’s guest, Ross DeVol, is Heartland Forward’s president and CEO. During this episode, Ross explains the mission of Heartland forward, its four focal areas, and some of the key players who are involved. Ross also shares an overview of the most recent re...

Haley Moss is Florida’s first documented openly autistic attorney. She is also an author, artist, and advocate for embracing neurodiversity in the legal profession. When Haley was diagnosed with autism in the late 1990s, there was very little awareness about the disability. Although there is a lot more understanding and support today, we still have a long way to go. During today’s episode, Haley s...

As the Assistant Vice Principal of Partnerships and Innovation, Jim Banting plays an invaluable role in contributing to supporting research, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the ecosystem within and around Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. It’s not hard to see why he is certain he has the best job in the world!  During this episode, Jim explains how his office works to advance research, p...

Today’s guest has been an employee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since 1989. Today, James Wilson is the Assistant Regional Director of their Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Office (the first one to be established outside of the DC area) which offers a variety of resources to 9 states across the region.  From trademark basics boot camps to courses on how to protect your...