Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA) was established to address intellectual property challenges facing public agricultural research. PIPRA provides resources to help public sector researchers and institutions navigate patents and intellectual property issues. The organization recognizes that while intellectual property can support innovation, it also creates uncertainties and high transaction costs if not properly managed, as seen with the over 70 proprietary technologies and 40 US patents related to crop development. PIPRA aims to help public researchers understand intellectual property dimensions of projects early on to facilitate commercialization and partnerships while supporting continued public sector agricultural innovation.

1. Public research and innovation:
Opportunities and challenges
Alan B. Bennett, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture

2. University research represents a $50B investment –
mostly from the government,
but does it lead to innovation
and economic development?

3. How are U.S. universities using this
research base to support innovation
and economic development?
Bayh-
Bayh-Dole Act >25 years old
1. Created clarity about IP ownership
2. Localized licensing of IP near researcher/inventor
3. Created incentives to build technology transfer infrastructure
Focus on intellectual property

5. Licensing activity and royalty revenues indicate that
university innovation accounts for >$20B in economic activity
And contribute to a robust engine for future innovation cycles:

8. University innovation and technology transfer can:
Strengthen institutional research capacity
Provide “real world” research experiences for students
Contribute to regional economic development
And contribute to a better world
So, what is not to like?
And can institutions adopt deliberate strategies to
drive innovations from labs to the market?

9. UC Davis – from its roots

10. A comprehensive university campus
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
College of Biological Sciences
College of Engineering 4 Colleges
College of Letters and Science
Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Division of Social Sciences
5 Professional Schools
Plus National Primate Center

11. Research Funding 1996-2006
in millions
FY 1996-97 $183.6
$600
FY 1997-98 $195.5
$500
FY 1998-99 $246.3
$400
FY 1999-00 $268.6
$300
FY 2000-01 $298.3
$200
FY 2001-02 $356.9
$100
FY 2002-03 $426.3
$0
FY 2003-04 $420.7
FY 2004-05 $505.3
FY 2005-06 $544.0

12. Deliberate and strategic IP management to
identify best innovative path
Founded 2004
Technology Transfer Services Business Development Services
(lawyers and scientists) (MBAs and entrepreneurs)

13. Three strategies – a lo mismo tiempo
Infrastructure to support technology
transfer and industry collaborations
Strong research base
Networks with Culture supporting
business development innovation in the
resources – legal, investment university and faculty

14. leadership counts
“California's economic rise is closely tied to the rise of its research universities. New
industries have been invented, new products have been developed and new medical
techniques have been invented to both save lives and enhance their quality.”
President Atkinson
“Our mission is education, research, and public service.
Technology transfer is a vehicle that helps us do all three. It boosts research
support. It creates internships and educational opportunities for our students. It
stimulates the regional economy. And hopefully, it benefits society.” Chancellor
Dynes

15. Campus “Events” – 15 to 20 per year
Info Sessions Monthly panel discussions focused on topics of interest to entrepreneurs
Biz 4 Academics Briefings on business topics relevant to entrepreneurs - created a
peer-oriented environment for faculty
Office Hours One-on-one mentoring sessions on specific topics.
Springboard Mentoring Mentoring program where a company would be matched with
a mentor to provide guidance.
Little Bang Annual poster competition with a specific focus on encouraging graduate
students in the sciences and engineering to form teams with MBAs.
Entrepefest Annual invitation-only networking event to bridge academia, industry, and
the investor communities. Attendance between 125 and 400.
Life Science Summits Major one-day sector-focused conferences
.
SBIR Seminars One-day seminars focused on writing successful SBIR grant applications.
Monthly newsletter

16. High profile examples of success and campus recognition
– i.e. Entrepreneur of the year
UNIAX - Founded 1993
DuPont acquisition, Oct. 2000,
Conducting polymers
2000: Uniax founder, Alan Heeger,
shares Nobel Prize

17. Supporting faculty entrepreneurs
Faculty Roadmap for a
Start-up Company
http://www.innovationaccess.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm?id=OVC,23,1728,1718,1276

18. Supporting student entrepreneurs

19. Three strategies
Infrastructure to support technology
transfer and industry collaborations
Strong research base
Networks with Culture supporting
business development innovation in the
resources – legal, investment university and faculty

20. Infrastructure to support technology
transfer and industry collaborations
What skills are needed?
Invention Disclosure - ROI Technical/scientific
Patent Evaluation and Filing Legal
Market Evaluation Business
Legal/Business Entrepreneurial
License to Existing Company License to Start-up Company

21. Associate Vice
Chancellor
Alan Bennett
Executive Director
UC Davis
InnovationAccess
David McGee
Associate Director Associate Director
Director Director Associate Director
Technology Transfer Technology Transfer
Business Officer Business Development Industry Research Technology Transfer
Services Services
(Open Position) & Entrepreneurship Alliances Material Transf & IP Serv.
Basic Sci. & IP Serv. Life Sci. & IP Services
Meg Arnold Mona Ellerbrock Rafael Gacel
Clint Neagley Barbara Boczar
(20%) Manager
Manager Intellectual Property Intellectual Property Intellectual Property
Project Manager Business Development
Business Development Officer Officer Analyst
Rebeca Madrigal Strategy
Tod Stoltz Andrei Chakhovskoi Luanna Putney Linda Dixon
Sajeel Malani
Intellectual Property Intellectual Property Intellectual Property
Marketing Assistant
Officer Analyst Analyst
Jasmine A. Bonoan
Nancy Rashid Stacey Finney Pakou Vang
Intellectual Property
Interim Program Intellectual Property Intellectual Property
Officer
Coordinator Officer Assistant
Copyright
Thomas Spahr Raj Gururajan Gina Melville
Jan Dwyer
Intellectual Property Intellectual Property
Analyst Officer
Denise Meade Randi Jenkins
Intellectual Property
Analyst
Sharron Thompson

22. An infrastructure for technology management
www.iphandbook.org

23. Three strategies
Infrastructure to support technology
transfer and industry collaborations
Strong research base
Networks with Culture supporting
business development innovation in the
resources – legal, investment university and faculty

24. Created a culture supporting innovation in the
university, in the faculty and graduate students

25. Infrastructure to manage existing intellectual
property assets (technology transfer office)

26. Developed networks with business development
resources – legal, investment and entrepreneurship

27. Infrastructure to support technology
transfer and industry collaborations
Strong research base
Networks with Culture supporting
business development innovation in the
resources – legal, investment university and faculty
Preparation leads to surprises and success

28. research diversity driving innovation

29. research diversity driving innovation
Soluble expoxide
hydrolase Patent portfolio
Celebrex, Vioxx

30. research diversity driving innovation

31. The university-based technology cluster
university-
Intellectual Property can be an important tool to support innovation
AND
Universities are important sources of innovation and IP
What about agriculture?

32. Agricultural research – historically a public good…
Subsistence crops for developing countries
Specialty crops; low value traits; public breeders

33. Agricultural research – increasingly a private asset…

34. And patent claims are appropriating public science…
US 2007/0022495 A1
patent application
1.A transgenic plant having an improved trait relative to a control plant, wherein: (a) the transgenic plant comprises a
recombinant polynucleotide encoding a first polypeptide having a conserved domain at least 65% identical to the
conserved domain of a second polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 110, 112, 116, 120, 124,
128, 131, 135, 139, 143, 147, 151, 155, 159, 163, 167, 171, 175, 179, 183, 187, 191, 195, 199, 203, 207, 211, 215, 219,
223, 227, 231, 235, 239, 243, 247, 251, 255, 259, 263, 267, 271, 275, 280, 284, 288, 292, 296, 299, 303, 306, 309, 313,
317, 321, 325, 329, 333, 337, 341, 345, 349, 353, 357, 361, 365, 369, 373, 377, 381, 385, 389, 393, 397, 401, 404, 406,
409, 413, 416, 419, 422, 425, 428, 431, 435, 439, 443, 447, 451, 454, 458, 462, 465, 468, 471, 475, 478, 482, 485, 489,
493, 497, 501, 505, 509, 512, 515, 519, 522, 526, 530, 534, 538, 542, 546, 550, 553, 557, 561, 565, 568, 571, 574, 577,
581, 585, 588, 591, 594, 597, 601, 605, 609, 613, 616, 620, 624, 628, 632, 636, 640, 644, 648, 652, 656, 660, 664, 667,
671, 674, 678, 682, 686, 689, 692, 696, 700, 704, 708, 712, 715, 719, 723, 727, 731, 734, 738, 741, 745, 749, 752, 756,
760, 762, 766, 770, 774, 778, 782, 786, 789, 793, 797, 801, 805, 809, 813, 816, 819, 823, 827, 831, 835, 839, 843, 847,
851, 855, 859, 863, 867, 871, 874, 878, 882, 886, 890, 894, 898, 901, 905, 909, 913, 917, 921, 925, 929, 933, 937, 941,
945, 949, 953, 957, 960, 963, 966, 970, 973, 976, 980, 984, 988, 992, 995, 999, 1003, 1007, 1011, 1015, 1019, 1023,
1027, 1031, 1037, 1041, 1045, 1049, 1052, 1056, 1060, 1064, 1067, 1071, 1075, 1078, 1081, 1085, 1089, 1093, 1097,
1101, 1104, 1108, 1112, 1116, 1120, 1123, 1126, 1130, 1134, 1138, 1142, 1145, 1148, 1151, 1154, 1157, 1161, 1165, 1169,
1173, 1177, 1181, 1185, 1188, 1192, 1195, 1199, 1203, 1207, 1211, 1215, 1219, 1222, 1226, 1229, 1233, 1236, 1240,
1243, 1247, 1251, 1254, 1258, 1262, 1266, 1269, 1273, 1277, 1281, 1285, 1289, 1293, 1297, 1300, 1304, 1308, 1311,
1314, 1318, 1322, 1326, 1330, 1334, 1338, 1342, 1346, 1350, 1354, 1358, 1361, 1365, 1369, 1372, 1376, 1380, 1384,
1388, 1392, 1396, 1400, 1404, 1408, 1411, 1415, 1419, 1423, 1427, 1431, 1435, 1439, 1443, 1446, 1449, 1452, 1455,
1459, 1463, 1467, 1470, 1474, 1477, 1481, 1488, 1492, 1495, 1499, 1503, 1507, 1511, 1515, 1519, 1522, 1526, 1530,
1533, 1537, 1541, 1545, 1549, 1553, 1557, 1561, 1565, 1568, 1572, 1576, 1579, 1583, 1586, 1589, 1593, 1596, 1598,
1602, 1604, 1608, 1611, 1614, 1617, 1620, 1624, 1628, 1632, 1636, 1640, 1645, 1648, 1652, 1656, 1660, 1664, 1668,
1672, 1676, 1680, 1684, 1688, 1692, 1696, 1700, 1704, 1707, 1711, 1715, 1719, 1722, 1726, 1729, 1733, 1737, 1741,
1745, 1749, 1753, 1757, 1761, 1765, 1769, 1773, 1777, 1781, 1785, 1789, 1793, 1796, 1800, 1803, 1806, 1809, 1812,
1816, 1820, 1824, 1827, 1831, 1835, 1838, 1841, 1844, 1846, 1850, 1853, 1857, 1861, 1865, 1869, 1873, 1877, 1881,
1885, 1889, 1893, 1897, 1901, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1935, 1939, 1943, 1949, 1957, 1961,
1964, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998; and 1999-2007; (b) the improved
trait is selected from the group consisting of larger size, larger seeds, greater yield, darker green color, increased rate of
photosynthesis, more tolerance to osmotic stress, more drought tolerance, more heat tolerance, more salt tolerance,
more cold tolerance, more tolerance to low nitrogen, early flowering, delayed flowering, more resistance to disease, more
seed protein, and more seed oil relative to the control plant.

35. … which creates IP challenges for public research
and missed opportunities for crop development.
70 proprietary technologies (40 US patents)
IP uncertainty
High transaction costs
Kryder, Kowalsky & Kratigger, 2000

36. IP in Agricultural Research and Innovation
IP (patents) can be difficult to navigate – especially for
public sector institutions that don’t have the history,
experience or resources.
Public-private partnerships require up-front agreements
that address intellectual property rights.
The first step in a project intended to be commercialized
is understanding and addressing the IP dimensions of
the project.
PIPRA was established as a resource for public
researchers and institutions.

37. PIPRA's founders wanted to created a
partnership of public institutions
To enable access to agricultural technologies and the underlying IPRs
To develop IP strategies that will have the highest impact on the development
of new technologies – especially for specialty crops and developing countries
To develop high standards of IP management
To leverage its broad base of experience for capacity building in developing
countries

39. www.pipra.org
abbennett@ucdavis.edu
PIPRA’s world headquarters at the
University of California, Davis

41. Ag-Biotechnology R&D in Latin America and the Caribbean
Private Firms
22%
Public R&D
Centers
29% Public
An even greater responsibility for the to both public sector
Universities
49%
initiate and participate in completing the agricultural biotechnology
R&D pipeline
78% Latin American R&D Developed in Public Sector
* Survey includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala,
Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela
Graphs constructed from data from: Trigo, et al. Agricultural Biotechnology and Rural Development in Latin
America and the Caribbean. Inter-American Development Bank, 2000