Historically, commercial use of university research has been viewed in terms of spillovers. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in technology transfer through licensing as universities attempt to appropriate the returns from faculty research. This change has prompted concerns regarding the source of this growth—specifically, whether it suggests a change in the nature of university research. (Thursby 2002) ^ University-based firms are receiving growing interest from policy makers and researchers. Such firms obtain a variety of tangible and intangible resources from their academic partners, and are expected to translate these advantages into substantial gains. (Bonardo 2011) ^Technology transfer is a big concern for universities, how can they identify business opportunities from IP developed? We have created relationships with universities to help them do just that. Contact us to learn more.

Patents have a maximum life of 20 years and, therefore, a 20-year potential monopoly. Patents that are just beginning their life and which have longer to run on the their potential monopoly position understandably will have more value. It is rare that a patent nearing the end of its term will cause a great threat to its competitors. It is almost certain that they will have devised technologies or products of their own by then that will not interfere with the patent owners monopoly position. In addition, one has to take into consideration the potential business life of a patent, i.e., the duration, which a patent is likely to be economically useful, if other subsequent patents are providing better alternatives to it.

Utility patents protect inventions that are a novel, nonobvious, and useful, such as: process innovations, machine innovations, manufacturing innovations, compositions of matter, or incremental improvements from foundational innovations. The three patentability requirements: New and Novel: For a United States patent the invention must never have been made public in any way, anywhere in the world, a year before the date on which an application for a patent is filed. In other countries, you have no one year grace period and require absolute novelty. Original and Nonobvious: An invention involves an inventive step if, when compared with what is already known, it would not be obvious to someone with a good knowledge and experience of the subject, for example, if you just make cosmetic changes that is obvious. Useful: This means that the invention must take the practical form of an apparatus or device, it has to do something.

Most of our competitors emphasize the importance of "deep 'prior art' searches." In their efforts to show you how technically capable they are, they seem to forget the importance of returning results that (1) are interpretable, (2) have practical meaning, and (3) are transparently sophisticated. Our promise to you is that we will continue to focus on the types of questions you need answered and will improve our patent search tools based on your needs. At IPstreet.com, we use a very sophisticated search technology called "Concept Searching" that allows you to enter a lengthy description of your invention, product, or idea, and compare it to the universe of granted patents and patent applications in the United States using data from the USPTO. Using our patent analytic search tools, we offer you patent analytics software that is sophisticated, transparent, and meaningful results. Our patent search tools are top of the line. We understand patent searches are important when answering the questions, is my idea patentable, how to patent an idea and what is the best patent search service available?