Fostering Innovation for the Benefit of Society: Technology Licensing’s Role at Stanford

Abstract

Fostering innovation for the bene fi t of society is part of the mission of Stanford's Of fi ce of Technology Licensing (OTL); "To promote the transfer of Stanford technology for society's use and bene fi t while generating unrestricted income to support research and education." Throughout Stanford's history, researchers' drive to innovate formed Stanford into the active and prominent academic institution that it is today. To help understand the role of Stanford's OTL in this system, this chapter reviews OTL's history, policies, and practices. We provide some attributes that help OTL be successful in transferring technologies that will bene fi t the public, as well as examples of how OTL works with startups to move the technologies out from Stanford into companies. These companies might then produce new products that will bene fi t the world. Stanford's BackgroundStanford's history is steeped in innovation. One of the people who seeded and formed our university's ecosystem and surrounding environment is Frederick Terman, former Professor, Dean, and Provost of the university. Professor Terman had a long history with Stanford, having moved to the university when his father took a faculty position. Following in his father's professorial footsteps, he eventually became a faculty member at Stanford in the Electrical Engineering Department.Professor Terman realized that California did not have many jobs for engineering graduates, so he helped to provide and build opportunities for such jobs, including