Invention disclosures have risen from only one or two per year in the 1970's to approximately 80 per year currently. Intellectual properties developed at UT Southwestern are managed by the Office for Technology Development, which has received more than 900 intellectual property disclosures in the fields of biotechnology, medical devices, software, videotapes, and others. By state law, intellectual property developed at UT Southwestern or by UT Southwestern faculty, staff or students is the property of the University of Texas System Board of Regents and is governed by policies outlined in the Regents' Rules and Regulations . Intellectual properties can be licensed on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. Copyrighted materials, such as software and videotapes, have also been licensed.
Licensees represent a wide spectrum of large and small companies, including foreign ones.
UT Southwestern also holds equity interests in a number of start-up companies established on technologies licensed from UT Southwestern. Commercial involvement begins when a commercial partner identifies a promising new technology developed by a research investigator at UT Southwestern. This information may include pending patent applications and other valuable research data. If the review of the commercial potential of the technology is positive, a potential licensee may choose to negotiate an option agreement or sponsored research agreement prior to finalizing a license agreement. Sponsoring research in the inventor's laboratory is a very cost-effective way for a potential licensee to generate additional, valuable information on the technology or create improvements to an existing technology.