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Colleges and universities created 542 companies, issued 2,821 patents, and generated $2.379 billion in licensing income in the 2008 fiscal year, according to an annual survey by the Association of University Technology Managers.
Although the association discourages direct comparisons in its survey, "U.S. Licensing Activity Survey: FY 2008," because the roster of participating colleges changes a bit from year to year, the technology managers' group points out that most of the indicators show "a steady increase in the amount of technology transfer activity,” Arundeep S. Pradhan, AUTM's president and associate vice president for technology transfer and business development at Oregon Health & Science University, said in a news release about the findings.
Pradhan and AUTM herald the continuing generation of technological and other innovation out of universities as evidence of the success of the Bayh-Dole Act, which allows universities and other entities to license discoveries developed with federal research money. "...[T]he Bayh-Dole act is working as intended."
While some of the numbers in the association's survey (and in the table below) are likely to make entrepreneurial college administrators (and perhaps some researchers) drool, with visions of riches in their heads, the data also make one reality very clear: Financial success in academic technology transfer is hard to come by, and as is true of many things in higher education, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is wide.
Four universities brought in over $100 million in licensing income in 2008, twice as many as the year before, and 12 earned more than $50 million. But the money brought in by those 12 institutions -- $1.794 billion -- was 75 percent of the total earned by the 154 colleges and universities that responded to the survey.
Highlights of "U.S. Licensing Activity Survey: FY 2008"
| 2008 Research Expenditures | Licenses and Options Executed, 2008 | 2008 Startups | Patents Issued, 2008 | Patent Applications, 2008 | 2008 License Income | |
| Northwestern U. | $368,169,430 | 28 | 4 | 32 | 158 | $824,426,230 |
| U. of California System | $4,403,662,006 | 206 | 55 | 224 | 899 | $146,314,433 |
| Columbia U. | $640,000,000 | 36 | 10 | 59 | 264 | $134,273,996 |
| New York U. | $310,699,000 | 40 | 6 | 30 | 42 | $104,254,314 |
| Wake Forest U. | $148,686,377 | 11 | 2 | 10 | NA | $90,005,640 |
| Massachusetts Inst of Tech | $1,319,000,000 | 98 | 20 | 140 | 282 | $88,924,500 |
| U. of Minnesota | $583,524,000 | 63 | 1 | 37 | 58 | $84,669,281 |
| U. of Washington/ Washington Research Fdn. | $1,026,788,452 | 212 | 9 | 56 | 149 | $80,330,765 |
| U. of Rochester | $361,602,172 | 18 | 6 | 25 | 74 | $72,264,249 |
| Stanford U. | $694,217,484 | 107 | 9 | 132 | 396 | $62,514,524 |
| Wisconsin Alumni Research Fdn./U. of Wisconsin at Madison | $942,000,000 | 75 | 6 | 98 | 144 | $54,130,000 |
| U. of Florida | $483,798,009 | 75 | 14 | 52 | 180 | $52,252,469 |
| U. of Massachusetts | $435,247,000 | 35 | 2 | 25 | 66 | $35,982,532 |
| Mt. Sinai School of Medicine/New York U. | $296,379,952 | 14 | 0 | 13 | 18 | $31,390,804 |
| U. of Utah | $273,005,853 | 78 | 20 | 33 | 119 | $26,211,372 |
| U. of Michigan | $875,753,507 | 91 | 13 | 75 | 132 | $25,008,033 |
| U. of Georgia | $350,299,000 | 130 | 2 | 33 | 60 | $24,128,536 |
| U. of Iowa Research Fdn. | $293,564,000 | 22 | 0 | 24 | 36 | $23,560,163 |
| Wayne State U. | $249,210,000 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 35 | $23,554,221 |
| Harvard U. | $660,081,500 | 56 | 12 | 55 | 167 | $20,980,563 |
| California Inst. of Tech | NA | 57 | 14 | NA | 426 | $19,220,613 |
| Emory U. | $390,965,216 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 70 | $19,096,296 |
| Research Fdn of State U. of New York | $784,324,279 | 56 | 10 | 44 | 126 | $19,059,356 |
| Washington U. in St. Louis | $548,351,000 | 52 | 4 | 14 | 112 | $15,715,818 |
| Duke U. | $678,184,248 | 96 | 7 | 32 | 102 | $15,591,503 |
| Case Western Reserve U. | $416,077,000 | 34 | 1 | NA | NA | $13,294,612 |
| Texas A&M U. System | $582,365,000 | 41 | 1 | 28 | 75 | $11,787,219 |
| U. of Texas at Austin | $527,141,322 | 56 | 10 | 25 | 74 | $11,553,727 |
| Johns Hopkins U. | $1,183,768,000 | 92 | 12 | 45 | 387 | $11,362,574 |
| Baylor College of Medicine | $304,225,000 | 44 | 1 | 11 | 30 | $8,863,000 |
| U. of Chicago/UCTech | $317,515,531 | 22 | 0 | 29 | 58 | $8,623,473 |
| Iowa State U. | $251,674,000 | 57 | 2 | 27 | 76 | $8,580,317 |
| Vanderbilt U. | $444,332,462 | 49 | 4 | 16 | 69 | $8,322,536 |
| U. of Pennsylvania | $667,354,660 | 54 | 2 | 44 | 478 | $8,200,086 |
| Rutgers U. | $323,404,000 | 97 | 2 | 36 | 83 | $7,978,746 |
| U. of Illinois, Chicago, Urbana | $830,779,000 | 66 | 11 | 55 | 167 | $7,547,408 |
| The UAB Research Fdn. | $404,615,000 | 17 | 1 | 10 | 31 | $7,404,587 |
| U. of Southern California | $484,600,000 | 31 | 5 | 41 | 135 | $7,270,538 |
| U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | $377,169,609 | 41 | 2 | 15 | 45 | $7,175,844 |
| Cornell Research Fdn., Inc. | $668,227,455 | 46 | 5 | 54 | 137 | $6,928,171 |
| U. of Oregon | $101,342,337 | 37 | 0 | 4 | 3 | $6,848,652 |
| U. of Missouri, all campuses | $354,736,593 | 65 | 6 | 20 | 58 | $6,713,233 |
| U. of Pittsburgh | $641,626,000 | 58 | 3 | 36 | 100 | $6,666,734 |
| Georgetown U. | $144,957,000 | 20 | 0 | 12 | 26 | $6,518,923 |
| Carnegie Mellon U. | $229,280,000 | 25 | 10 | 21 | 40 | $6,364,422 |
| U. of Colorado | $661,000,000 | 59 | 11 | 28 | 81 | $6,040,300 |
| Ohio U. | $25,977,573 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 41 | $5,872,011 |
| Tulane U. | $146,875,083 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 19 | $5,492,028 |
| Indiana U. | $404,621,549 | 31 | 2 | 8 | 50 | $4,960,554 |
| Dartmouth College | $174,109,072 | 8 | 1 | 13 | 25 | $4,939,523 |
| Michigan State U. | $356,767,000 | 25 | 3 | 48 | 125 | $4,768,590 |
| Oregon Health & Science U. | $279,849,368 | 48 | 4 | 13 | 34 | $4,683,605 |
| Brigham Young U. | $26,364,124 | 29 | 9 | 3 | 52 | $4,481,644 |
| U. of Virginia Patent Fdn. | $257,651,000 | 65 | 2 | 12 | 252 | $4,479,545 |
| Tufts U. | $151,007,696 | 13 | 2 | 8 | 22 | $4,017,373 |
| U. of Tennessee | $246,397,068 | 17 | 2 | 15 | 64 | $3,877,000 |
| Purdue Research Fdn. | $495,099,000 | 82 | 11 | 24 | 175 | $3,411,728 |
| U. of Texas Health Science Center at Houston | $197,251,748 | 25 | 2 | 3 | 14 | $3,375,907 |
| Louisiana State U. System | $391,767,000 | 12 | 2 | 25 | 62 | $2,865,003 |
| Clemson U. | $139,283,678 | 25 | 3 | 15 | 65 | $2,861,439 |
| U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | $619,600,024 | 58 | 5 | 17 | 55 | $2,779,464 |
| U. of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio | $201,323,000 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 13 | $2,491,100 |
| U. of Nebraska | $342,648,172 | 28 | 3 | 13 | 78 | $2,452,336 |
| Oregon State U. | $188,056,000 | 42 | 1 | 11 | 42 | $2,346,225 |
| Georgia Inst. of Tech | $536,412,548 | 49 | 9 | 46 | 193 | $2,247,922 |
| Ohio State U. | $702,563,477 | 23 | 5 | 15 | 66 | $2,094,803 |
| Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Yeshiva U. | $145,523,590 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 12 | $2,034,755 |
| U. of South Alabama | $28,079,274 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | $2,022,116 |
| Virginia Tech Properties, Inc. | $199,635,893 | 20 | 3 | 23 | 85 | $1,975,867 |
| Virginia Commonwealth U. | $148,655,000 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 81 | $1,884,093 |
| Thomas Jefferson U | $94,031,794 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 13 | $1,840,458 |
| U. of South Florida | $298,500,000 | 28 | 5 | 31 | 129 | $1,831,000 |
| U. of Maryland at College Park | $346,369,269 | 12 | 3 | 23 | 93 | $1,554,532 |
| Kansas State U. Research Fdn. | $95,878,594 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 21 | $1,550,106 |
| Penn State U. | $717,244,000 | 26 | 1 | 38 | 107 | $1,504,063 |
| North Dakota State U. | $115,513,000 | 122 | 0 | 9 | 29 | $1,487,811 |
| Boston U./Boston Medical Center | $343,423,777 | 23 | 12 | 9 | 66 | $1,484,441 |
| Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab | $819,288,904 | 16 | 1 | 23 | 57 | $1,378,057 |
| Florida State U. | $206,541,848 | 11 | 3 | 11 | 27 | $1,257,266 |
| Arizona State U. | $237,521,155 | 50 | 1 | 16 | 87 | $1,212,021 |
| Oklahoma State U. | $138,759,227 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 17 | $1,207,251 |
| U. of Kentucky Research Fdn. | $242,966,000 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 13 | $1,200,000 |
| Eastern Virginia Medical School | $30,777,000 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 9 | $1,188,762 |
| U. of Houston | $84,490,000 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 33 | $1,127,214 |
| U. of Akron | $49,597,813 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 31 | $1,122,879 |
| U. of Texas Medical Branch | $153,461,284 | 19 | 2 | 10 | 29 | $1,108,782 |
| U. of Kansas | $197,797,000 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 72 | $1,100,168 |
| U. of Alabama in Huntsville | $65,320,000 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 8 | $1,024,247 |
| Washington State U. Research Fdn. | $140,862,174 | 15 | 2 | 6 | 74 | $1,010,047 |
| Miami U. | $29,825,907 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | $1,009,100 |
| East Carolina U. | $16,192,000 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | $915,311 |
| Medical U. of South Carolina | $161,162,346 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 16 | $862,107 |
| Colorado State U. | $302,612,943 | 32 | 3 | 9 | 71 | $804,680 |
| U. of Toledo | $59,583,000 | 12 | 3 | 5 | 34 | $696,293 |
| U. of Connecticut | $161,336,207 | 17 | 3 | 23 | 30 | $691,561 |
| U. of Arizona | $547,197,359 | 37 | 6 | 19 | 68 | $690,190 |
| U. of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | $115,537,862 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 15 | $677,262 |
| Auburn U. | $146,984,000 | 14 | 1 | 12 | 67 | $675,132 |
| U. of Cincinnati | $211,393,081 | 21 | 0 | 8 | 32 | $582,697 |
| U. of New Mexico/Science & Tech Corp. | $197,628,506 | 21 | 6 | 11 | 76 | $563,194 |
| U. of Delaware | $166,370,000 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 76 | $554,928 |
| Rice U. | $83,562,362 | 35 | 2 | 34 | 96 | $530,730 |
| U. of Miami | $325,300,000 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 73 | $526,143 |
| Utah State U. | $148,257,000 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 20 | $524,316 |
| Michigan Technological U. | $60,356,000 | 10 | 2 | 8 | 23 | $523,624 |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. | $63,197,369 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 48 | $517,964 |
| Northeastern U. | $56,727,549 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 71 | $444,412 |
| Mississippi State U. | $210,951,000 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 15 | $428,362 |
| San Diego State U. | $106,850,421 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | $381,661 |
| Temple U. | $150,376,036 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | $379,901 |
| U. of Hawaii | $211,778,184 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 66 | $359,525 |
| Kent State U. | $18,444,358 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 25 | $351,680 |
| U. of Rhode Island | $60,700,000 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 38 | $344,642 |
| U. of Maryland at Baltimore | $377,418,000 | 26 | 2 | 13 | 64 | $343,047 |
| U. of Idaho | $81,532,163 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 15 | $335,243 |
| New Jersey Inst. of Tech | $89,792,000 | 79 | 0 | 11 | 43 | $333,527 |
| U. of Oklahoma, all Campuses | $158,936,770 | 4 | 1 | 18 | 32 | $330,066 |
| U. of Central Florida | $108,000,000 | 8 | 2 | 57 | 0 | $327,176 |
| U. of Arkansas at Fayetteville | $110,875,000 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 8 | $302,536 |
| Lehigh U. | $45,637,000 | NA | NA | 0 | 13 | $299,238 |
| Drexel U. | $102,209,005 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 93 | $295,800 |
| Medical College of Georgia Research Inst. | $57,085,169 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 53 | $290,204 |
| Montana State U. | $96,150,553 | 46 | 2 | 9 | 21 | $272,828 |
| U. of Notre Dame | $103,300,000 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 39 | $259,990 |
| U. of New Hampshire | $98,820,786 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 6 | $239,059 |
| U. of Texas at Arlington | $66,610,535 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 42 | $222,475 |
| U. of South Carolina | $185,197,907 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 99 | $210,000 |
| U. of North Carolina at Greensboro | $33,125,843 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | $200,744 |
| Florida Atlantic U. | $43,249,100 | 1 | 0 | 2 | NA | $198,880 |
| U. of Vermont | $90,642,167 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 12 | $184,693 |
| New Mexico State U. | $120,323,370 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 15 | $177,944 |
| U. of Louisville | $164,123,000 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 53 | $142,321 |
| U. of Northern Iowa | $30,257,222 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9 | $117,750 |
| Ball State U. | $20,388,000 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | $112,443 |
| Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte | $29,808,055 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 42 | $109,360 |
| George Mason U. | $79,883,243 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 38 | $104,007 |
| Medical College of Wisconsin Research Fdn. | $134,200,000 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | $100,264 |
| Stevens Inst. of Tech | $29,134,765 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 12 | $100,250 |
| U. of Nevada at Reno | $74,638,418 | 4 | 0 | NA | NA | $97,553 |
| U. of Mississippi | $54,709,000 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 4 | $81,173 |
| U. of Maryland, Baltimore County | $66,801,421 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 22 | $72,927 |
| West Virginia U. | $154,382,000 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 25 | $72,240 |
| Louisiana Tech U. | $19,406,000 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 18 | $55,600 |
| U. of North Texas Health Science Ctr. | $31,895,377 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | $48,622 |
| U. of Alabama | $32,846,000 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 21 | $38,163 |
| Florida International U. | $74,607,044 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | $9,423 |
| Bowling Green State U. | $10,712,000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | $8,000 |
| U. of Maryland Biotechnology Inst. | $43,213,024 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 60 | $1,098 |
| U. of South Dakota | $22,742,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | $0 |
| Duquesne U. | $13,200,000 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | $0 |
| Portland State U. | $40,146,879 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | $0 |
| U. of North Florida | $3,156,557 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | $0 |
| U. of West Florida | $14,473,022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: Association of University Technology Managers
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