Technology Transfer
There are also some important aspects of managing the technical work
programmes often needed to support a licensing activity which need to be
addressed for successful technology transfer.
The donor company should recognise that there may be a need to adapt or
tailor the technology covered by the IP to demonstrate it fits the needs of
the buying company. While the work required to do this is best decided on
a case by case basis, it should be recognized that the scientists who
developed the technology in the first place are often the best placed to guide
that adaptation process. This means that the donor company has to make
decisions about allocating resources to out- licensing activity at some
opportunity cost to its core business R&D. The trade off is that the better
the fit at handover the higher the value of the return for the donor company.
Similarly, an in-licensing partner needs to commit resources to evaluation of
the IP. This again requires decisions about allocating resources to in-
licensing activity at some opportunity cost to its core business R&D. There
is also the challenge that the incoming technology may be seen as
undermining the in-house R&D capability - the not invented here syndrome.
This needs to be actively managed to generate a truly constructive
partnership between the technical teams in both companies.
These issues are particularly critical in big company - to - big company
technology transfer projects.
Here again, it is worth considering the use of third party agencies, i.e. project
managers who can act impartially to deliver the best possible technology
transfer outcome. While this role is common in engineering consultancy
businesses, it is much less common in chemical R&D. The Faraday
Partnerships, RTOs or some trade associations can be sources of this type
of service.
Legal and Financial
Most large companies have the legal and financial in-house resources to
execute the deal. However, it might be argued that balancing the in-house
demands on this resource with those to support licensing activity is one of
the biggest hurdles to delivery. While the primary responsibility of the
company staff is, quite rightly, to do the best for their company, there is an
argument that the licensing negotiation should be driven by the desire to do
the best mutually beneficial deal. Certainly, small companies licensing
technology to big companies sometimes have an almost unhealthy (though
not necessarily unjustifiable) paranoia about being unfairly exploited.
Companies with a more supportive and balanced licensing negotiation
process will, ultimately, do more and better deals.
We can help you to identify the areas of technology most suited to
technology transfer, and provide links into the networks to support this
activity.
