Inventor filings on rise, UA says

Disclosures reach 47 in record year

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville faculty and staff members and students filed more than 50% more invention disclosures this fiscal year, a record.

Through the university’s Technology Ventures office, applicants filed 47 invention disclosures, up 52% from the previous fiscal year, when 31 were filed.

The confidential invention disclosures describe aspects of a researcher’s patentable work or invention, including how it operates, how it is unique and in which markets it would fit.

David Hinton, associate director of the Technology Ventures office, said the growth comes from the changing entrepreneurfocused culture inside and outside the classroom.

“There is a lot of resources available to our faculty, staff and students to support their innovative research and creative endeavors that have a high potential for commercialization,” Hinton said. “This is essential to our Chancellors Guiding Priority to enhance our research and discovery mission by implementing programs to increase intellectual-property development.”

The office also filed 54 patent applications, up 23% from a year ago. In addition,

between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019, the university saw growth in the number of license agreements and patents issued.

Most of the invention disclosures came from the university’s faculty, but many did include graduate and undergraduate students, Hinton said.

While the disclosure titles can be made public, the content itself is confidential to protect the university’s potential assets, he said

when asked about specific examples.

Support on campus comes from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation through three funds for research that can potentially be used for commercial purposes.

The university is happy to provide the right resources that applicants “need to make groundbreaking discoveries and launch those discoveries into the market where they can make a real impact,” said Stacy Leeds, vice chancellor for economic development, in a statement Wednesday.

Technology Ventures is a division that manages the intellectual-property portfolio of the university. Hinton said the office serves the university’s staff, students, outside inventors and entrepreneurs, helping them develop products for the public market. The office also generates recurring revenue through royalties on license agreements, develops leads for industrysponsored research and drafts agreements related to intellectual property, he said.

While the process is arduous, it can be rewarding over time. In 2012, a group of researchers filed an intellectual

property disclosure for bacterial cell lines that simplify the making of protein therapeutics, a UA news release said. On that team was Ellen Brune, a chemical engineering graduate who founded Boston Mountain Biotech, a maker of pharmaceutical proteins in Fayetteville.

The process of moving the technology from the laboratory to the company was difficult, but was made easier by working with the Technology Ventures office, Bob Beitle, professor of chemical engineering, said in an Aug. 7, 2013, news release.