At Tulane University, commercialization isn't just about collecting patents, it's about transforming ideas into companies and inventions into market-ready products. This involves licensing university-owned intellectual property to external entities, like spin-out startups or established companies, who then bring the technology to life for the benefit of society and the university community. The End-To-End Commercialization Process, which is a collaborative effort of the Tulane Innovation Institute (TUII) and the Office of IP Management, helps usher Tulane inventors through the process of ideation to licensed technology. The sections outlined in the process can be summarized into four areas of focus listed below.
RESEARCH - Scout
During this first stage, promising pre-disclosure ideas and discoveries, many at the proposal stage, are reviewed informally by TUII to gain an understanding of faculty/student work that may be translated into new products and services. Faculty are encouraged to have early-stage engagement with TUII about commercial viability.
DEVELOP - Protect, Discover & Deliver, Convert
The Office of Intellectual Property Management (OIPM) will protect technology for a provisional period, while the commercialization team will incorporate customer discovery inputs into the invention and provide guidance on de-risking technical aspects of the technology. The TUII team will work with inventors to determine the most appropriate development and strategy for the technology.
ASSESS - Intake, Triage, Evaluate
The formal technology intake process begins, usually with a disclosure, and TUII will solicit both internal and external feedback, generally after first filing, "black boxing" the idea if a patent filing has not been filed, on disclosed inventions and identify next steps for that technology. Inventors will receive deeper feedback on disclosed inventions, which will inform next steps. In all, this process should take 8-12 weeks to complete.
LAUNCH - Cultivate, Nationalize, Exit
The TUII team will seek to identify potential external partners for technology development or commit to assisting with formation of a startup company, and the product or service will launch according to the exit strategy defined in previous steps.
