Patenting and licensing of university-based genetic inventions--a view from experience at Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing.

University technology transfer offices license inventions created at universities to companies looking for tools, additions to their product pipelines, improvements or start-up opportunities. This paper will cover the motivations for conducting university technology transfer, an overview of Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing and its patenting and licensing practices, models of royalty sharing at university technology transfer offices, and patenting and licensing genetic information inventions at Stanford University. The terms 'invention' and 'technology' are used interchangeably throughout the paper. Copyright 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel