{"id":124500,"key":"Do_Universities_Investing_in_Technology_Transfer_via_Patenting_Lose_Money?","title":"Do Universities Investing in Technology Transfer via Patenting Lose Money?","latest":{"id":1256948,"timestamp":"2026-07-24T12:45:13Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"{{FAST notice}}\n\n[[File:Burning-money-2113914 640.jpg|thumb]]\n\n{{Publication data\n| type = Paper\n| cite-as = Joshua M. Pearce. Do Universities Investing in Technology Transfer via Patenting Lose Money? ''Transfer Technológií Bulletin'', 2, 11-21, 2024. https://doi.org/10.52036/TTb2024211 [https://www.academia.edu/124833294/Do_Universities_Investing_in_Technology_Transfer_via_Patenting_Lose_Money OA Academia]\n| year = 2024\n| location = USA\n}}\n\nSubstantial investments are made in university patenting new developments to pursue a return. To gauge the impact of the holistic costs of patenting at universities, this study provides a new methodology for quantifying the investment in intellectual property (IP) that includes not only technology transfer staff costs, but also direct and opportunity faculty-related costs. It then uses the novel methodology and publicly-accessible data on a case study of an average American research university. The results found all component costs were higher than the IP-related income, with the opportunity cost for writing patents instead of grants being more than 33 times the income realized through IP protection. Overall, the case study university loses more than $9million/yr on IP with a negative ROI of -97.6%. Research universities have opportunities to increase research income >10% by ignoring IP. It is clear that Bayh-Dole Act and similar national legislation, is harming university economics. It can be concluded that as generally practiced in the U.S. now, it is not rational to continue to support university technology transfer by patents. Instead, to improve the economic bottom lines of universities, as well as increase the good that research and development does for society, universities can open source all innovations.\n\n{{Pearce publications notice}}\n\n== See also ==\n\n* [[It Is Time to Move Research Expenditures to the Denominator in University Metrics]]\n* [[Defense for Covert Administrative Techniques for Neutralizing American Highly Qualified Personnel]]\n* [[Quantifying the Human Mortality Costs of Patent-based Intellectual Property: How Many Premature Deaths are due to Patents?]]\n* [[Response to a Critique: Errors with Acri’s Opinion Piece Defending IP, While Premature Deaths Pile Up from Patents]]\n\n{{Page data\n| keywords = technology transfer, patents, intellectual property, open source, full cost accounting, opportunity costs, university IP, research\n| sdg = SDG08 Decent work and economic growth, SDG09 Industry innovation and infrastructure\n| published = 2024\n| organizations = Free Appropriate Sustainable Technology, Western\n| license = CC-BY-SA-4.0\n| language = en\n}}\n\n[[Category:Education]]\n[[Category:Intellectual Property]]\n[[Category:FAST Completed]]"}