Iowa State has been ranked 14th among the top universities for the amount of royalties received from licenses and patents, according to a publication by the Association of University Technology Managers that was released in December.

The university earned a total of $6.9 million in 1997.

However, the school does not receive the revenue directly, said Patricia Swan, vice provost for research and advanced studies. The $6.9 million is given to the ISU Research Foundation, which is a separate entity from the university.

Swan said the ISU Research Foundation was established by the Board of Regents in 1938.

“The ISU Research Foundation owns and manages intellectual property,” she said. “Their two main objectives are to get results from university research and return money to support additional research.”

Swan said one-third of the royalties is given to the inventor, one-third goes to the college that originated the invention, and the final one-third is given to the university to support the cost of research.

Swan said ISU began patenting in the 1920s.

Ken Kirkland, executive director of the ISU Research Foundation, said the organization is more interested in getting licenses signed than obtaining royalties. He said he believes using ISU inventions in products is important to Iowa’s economy.

“Our primary objective is not to make money through royalties, our mission is to benefit society through ISU innovations,” he said.

Juanita Lovejoy, assistant director of Intellectual Property and Technology, agreed with Kirkland that the revenue is not the most important aspect of the ranking.

“Our mission is not focused on the amount of income we receive; it is focused on the amount of technology used by the public — that is our key goal,” she said.

ISU has received the highest amount of royalties, more than $35 million, from an invention that is used in fax machines.

The inventor, Dave Nicholas, was a graduate student in the electrical engineering department.

The money received from the fax machine component has composed a large amount of the royalties that ISU has received during the past 17 years. However, the patent has now expired, which means that the university will no longer receive any royalties.