HBR Ten Breakthrough Ideas

There is considerable buzz in the technology transfer community over the Harvard Business Review article "Ten Breakthrough Ideas for 2010" published January 1st. The article includes the Kauffman Foundation's solution for technology transfer reform in the list of 10 ideas. The solution calls for an "open, competitive licensing system for university innovators", allowing inventors to choose not to work with their university technology transfer office. (I spoke on a panel with Robert Litan, one of the key Kauffman authors, this fall.)

To someone like myself, who has worked in this space for more than a decade, this is a well intentioned concept without a practical means of implementation. It reminds me of when I flew helicopters and some non-aviator would tell me "what you guys really need are ejection seats". Interesting idea, but impractical (and in fact it has been tried) for a number or reasons which are obvious to someone who practices the craft every day.

The Kauffman solution is a helicopter ejection seat. Interesting idea, that could work if a number of challenging issues were addressed first - including how to deal with upfront patent cost, and how to ensure technologies were marketed (most inventors would not put effort into that), and how to ensure inventors made competent, reasonable contracts with their selected licensing agent (most inventors are completely inexperienced at this).

I'm not saying my peers or myself are opposed to change and innovation - in fact I can argue that InnovateTech is bringing an innovative approach to the technology transfer market. But the innovative concepts need to be practical and well thought out. And it would probably make sense to work closely with practitioners when do so.