Iowa State is making its mark nationally in transferring technology to companies.

In a survey done by the Association of University Technology Managers Inc. for fiscal year 1998, Iowa State is ranked in the top 10 among universities across the country in licenses and options executed, total active licenses and options and patents issued.

“It’s a good way of testing our activities and successes against peer universities,” said Kenneth Kirkland, director of the ISU Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.

Iowa State ranked first in the nation for licenses and options executed. These are licenses and options that have actually been signed that year, Kirkland said.

Iowa State ranked fifth in total active licenses and options, which are all licenses and options in effect.

Juanita Lovejoy, associate director of the ISU Research Foundation and the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, said in the last couple years, Iowa State has given licenses to a variety of start-up companies, small companies and larger companies, such as Pioneer.

An option gives the company a chance to test the technology to see if it wants it, Lovejoy said. These options usually last for one year, often not longer than two years.

“Hopefully, all our options turn into licenses,” she said. However, Lovejoy said, this is not always the case.

Licenses give companies the right to use the technology and sell products based on the technology, Lovejoy said.

She said two kinds of licenses exist: exclusive and non-exclusive. Exclusive licenses give companies the sole right to the technology, and it is not licensed to anyone else. In non-exclusive licenses, the technology is licensed to anyone who wants it.

Lovejoy said companies often do not want to invest money in technology if it is not licensed to them.

“They don’t want to invest money in something they don’t have proprietary rights to,” she said. “That’s why the licensing becomes important.”

In total, Iowa State had 54 patents issued in 1998.

“What’s significant about it is that the activity of all the universities and their research actually generates lots of start-up companies, generates lots of products,” Lovejoy said.

She said this survey is important to Iowa State because part of the Research Foundation’s purpose is to get technology that is “actually used by the public.”

“[It’s] a measure of the quality of research going on,” she said.

Kirkland said the number of universities participating in the survey shows Iowa State is a leader in technology.

“We have world-class research, and that generates great inventions,” he said.

Murray Blackwelder, vice president for External Affairs, said technology transfer is part of Iowa State’s mission.

“I think it [the survey] is vitally important,” he said. “I believe it shows we’re obtaining one of the goals that our mission statement points out to us.”