After the University patented and Edwards published his work, he went to Boston, where he had been an MIT post doc, to start his own company. Penn State took stock in the company, AIR Inc., as partial payment for licensing a bundle of rights to the technology. Alkermes Inc. eventually acquired Edwards's company and the stock held by Penn State in AIR was converted to publicly traded stock in Alkermes. PSRF, a non-profit foundation, will use its share to fund patent and intellectual property administrative activities. Monahan says Edwards's story illustrates the value of protecting intellectual property.
Intellectual property has to be protected to be commercialized.
In 1998, according to the AUTM report, the PSU Intellectual Property Office filed 190 invention disclosures, the first step in the patenting process, ranking Penn State second in Pennsylvania, third in the Big Ten and sixth among all U.S. universities. None of my patents, for example, make money. Once you get the patent, you are just starting. You need to do development and you need to do marketing. Dr. Gary Weber, assistant vice president for research and director of technology transfer, says it's important to remember that Penn State encourages and supports research because it's part of its land-grant mission, because it helps the people of the Commonwealth and because research returns value for the tax dollars invested in the University.