Robert S. MacWright
Ph.D., Esq., Executive Director and CEO, University of Virginia Patent Foundation, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.

Many see our profession as more focused on public good than revenues. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that academic technology transfer is a business, and that we best serve the public good when we view it that way. Since 1997, the Patent Foundation has operated under what we refer to as a deal-based business model. Under this model, in most cases a license is negotiated before the big money is spent on converting a provisional patent application to a PCT or regular U.S. application. We believe this model has proven to be far better than the patent-based model under which a separate (and sometimes open-ended) budget for patenting expenses drives the conversion process.