Marketing Inventions

CTL’s goal is to offer researchers responsive and transparent service in managing invention portfolios. After an invention is disclosed to CTL, your licensing professional will work with you to assess the market potential of your invention.

 

Stages in the Marketing Process

  1. Market Research: As part of the evaluation process for every technology, market research helps to determine the potential of every invention and their applications.
  2. Marketing: CTL markets the invention. To find companies to license your invention, you can be a valuable resource to CTL in finding industry partners. Researchers who are involved in the marketing effort are more likely to see their invention commercialized than otherwise.
  3. More marketing: CTL generates non-confidential marketing materials and a list of target companies. Your industry contacts can be of great value in finding the right licensee for the invention. It is estimated that 80% of university licensing deals begin with the researcher’s relationships in industry.

Licensing Innovations

  1. Sign nondisclosure agreement: If a company expresses interest in licensing your invention, CTL and the company may sign a Nondisclosure Agreement so that CTL and you can discuss confidential information with the company.
  2. Negotiate: CTL’s licensing professional negotiates the terms of the license.
  3. Sign License Agreement: Your licensing professional and the company negotiate and sign the license agreement.
  4. Collect royalties: Once the licensing agreement is in place, you will receive royalties according to Cornell’s revenue sharing guidelines (for details, see the paragraph below).
  5. Ensure license compliance: CTL will continue to make sure that the licensee is in compliance with the terms in the agreement.

Royalty Distribution

If your invention gets licensed to a company, CTL will manage the fee collection and distribution process. CTL will retain the initial royalties to recover any remaining patenting cost we incurred; then, any additional royalties earned will be distributed as follows:

  • the researcher will receive one third
  • CTL will receive one third
  • the remainder is split between Cornell and the researcher’s “unit”; the definition of what constitutes a “unit” and the distribution between units is made by the researcher’s college dean.