A nationwide problem is surfacing within universities, including at Iowa State.

Royalties from patents are declining, due to an array of circumstances. This, in turn, results in diminished funds for research for inventors as well as the universities and organizations that sponsor them.

A main component to this situation is the constant expiration of revenue-generating patents, and the replacement of these patents going forward.

The outlook for Iowa State is not completely grim, however. As Nita Lovejoy said, “Our research funding actually has gone up over the years. Funds from royalties for us have been increasing.”

Lovejoy serves as associate director of the nonprofit ISU Research Foundation, as well as the Office of Intellectual Property and Patents, a university office.

She did, however, go on to say that funds from royalties “went down slightly last year and they probably will go down for a while because we will have one major patent that will expire and go off-patent in June 2013. So those funds will not be coming in any longer.”

To combat potential decreases in funding from royalties, continued research and innovation is required to create products and ideas that will hold both economic and intrinsic value.

In a most recent annual report conducted by Lisa Lorenzen, director of the ISU Research Foundation, in June of 2012, it is noted that patent filings through ISU Research Foundation, an organization that aids in university research and intellectual property, had gone up 19 percent in the fiscal year of 2011.

Furthermore, it is noted in the report that 102 disclosures were filed with the foundation. A disclosure, in short, is a preliminary step in the invention process where information regarding an invention is publicly disclosed. 

This number of 102 is very similar to that of 2011, which saw 106 disclosures.

It is also noted in the report that patents issued in the 2012 fiscal year went down from 25 to 16 in comparison with 2011.

While these statistics indicate diminished results, the gap is not insurmountable and there are legitimate sources of optimism.

Lovejoy said that, while there is likely to be a temporary downturn in royalties, the research foundation is capable of weathering the storm to continue to assist in funding for university inventors.

“We formed in 1938, so we know what those ups and downs are,” Lovejoy said. “Throughout the years, “we recognized that we really needed to build up some funds in order to be able to handle the ups and downs and to still be able to take care of all the inventions that come into the office.

“At that time, we established some funds that would help us be able to get over the hurdles, those years that are down.”

Innovation and research are not things that will cease at an institution that prides itself on its cutting-edge capabilities and its impact on industry.