In a move to attract more research funding through industry sponsorships and increase the number of university inventions that get commercialized, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is streamlining its licensing process with a new program called Panther Partnering.
The goal is to make research and associated intellectual property licensing transparent, easy and negotiation-free at fair terms, UWM Research Foundation Inc. vice president Jessica Silvaggi said.
"We feel this will be a win-win setup for both industry and UWM, making collaborations easier and faster so the teams can quickly hit the ground running rather than getting tied up with a lot of legal negotiation back-and-forth that wastes time and dampens the enthusiasm of the partnership,” Silvaggi said in a statement.
Currently, the UWM Research Foundation negotiates licensing deals on a case-by-case basis, which can be time-consuming, Silvaggi said.
With the new Panther Partnering program, companies interested in conducting research through the university can lock in lower royalty rates upfront for a flat fee on top of the costs of the research.
UWM currently has around 50 active licenses and typically negotiates eight to 10 licensing deals per year, Silvaggi said. With the new program in place, Silvaggi hopes to double that annual number.
"We want to increase deal flow," she said.
Under the Panther Partnering terms, a non-exclusive license with a royalty rate of 0.5% for inventions and 1.5% for software or copyrighted works will cost $10,000 for Wisconsin companies and $20,000 for out-of-state companies. For exclusive licenses, the fees are double with a 1.5% royalty for inventions and a 4.5% royalty for software and copyrighted works.
To qualify for the Panther Partnering rates, companies have to pay the license fee when they begin the sponsored research. Otherwise, they will have to negotiate a conventional license with the university — likely at higher rates — when the project is completed. Companies only begin paying royalty fees to the university when they hit $20 million in cumulative net sales of the licensed product.
The cost of sponsoring university research varies by project but is generally around $100,000 per year, Silvaggi estimated. If the UWM Research Foundation attracts an additional 10 companies per year to sponsor research through the Panther Partnering program, that would add $1 million in research funding annually.
UWM's total research expenditure is around $60 million per year, which includes funding from government grants, industry partners and other sources, Silvaggi said. As grant funding becomes increasingly competitive, corporate-sponsored research becomes more important, she said.
The Panther Partnering program is focused on established mid- to large-sized companies that have research budgets, Silvaggi said.
