iBRIDGE CONVERSATION

We’ve just lined up our next batch of Information Sessions for those interested in learning more about iBridge Network and how it can help universities market their innovations and inventions.

These sessions are held via WebEx-based conference calls, and each last about one hour. Laura Paglione, iBridge Network director, leads these sessions.

Here is our schedule of Information Sessions for the rest of May and June 2007:

• Thursday, May 31, 10:00 AM Central
• Wednesday, June 13, 3:00 PM Central
• Friday, June 29, 10:00 AM Central

Signing up is easy. Just click here and select the Information Session date that works for you. Once you do this, you’ll receive a confirmation email with all of the relevant information and with easy instructions to log into the session.

Any questions, just send us an email at info@iBridgeNetwork.org or call 1-800-573-5136.

At the Bio International Convention 2007, which took place earlier this week in Boston, the iBridge Network (along with the Kauffman Foundation) made a strong presence before the assemblage. If you’ve ever had a chance to attend this conference, you know of its unique brand of energy and all out global marketing competition (which means you get to bring home a bagful of conference swag for the kids).

Along this line, one major study, released on Monday at the conference, showed good news for university-based life sciences research. (Here’s an article on this report in The Financial Times.)

The study, conducted by Marks and Clerk, a United Kingdom-based law firm, found that among the world’s top twenty patent filing entities, academia beats out corporate by 51 percent in regard to patent production between 2002-2006.

The report also showed the world’s top patent filers, over the last five years, are the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the University of California, the U.S. government, Genentech, Inc., and the University of Texas. And note that the top twenty list is comprised mostly of U.S. universities. In addition, The Financial Times notes the study found the most influential biotech-related patents (based on their citation frequency) are all held by U.S. universities (with MIT/Harvard in the lead).

Would you believe the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is drinking more of the Silicon Valley Kool Aid? That is, a new DoD program, called the Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative (or DaVenCi for short) is working to link up its personnel with venture capitalists who recommend for military use new innovations and technologies being developed by startups around the country.

The point is that DoD may be evolving out of old-style procurement and speeding up dramatically its identification and acquisition of technologies it needs for national defense. The New York Times earlier this week ran a piece on how all of this is coming about.

And for more, consider Tech Transfer eNews’s (subscription required) angle on this topic in its recent issue, which is that universities have an equally vital role to play (along with VCs) with regard to programs like DaVenCi. “The initiative — and the article — ignore the potential role of university tech transfer in that effort,” according to eNews. And it adds: “The focus on VC’s shouldn’t stop determined tech transfer managers from marketing their IP.”

If there was any doubt about the biotech’s global growth potential, a new report from Ernst & Young may help tamp that down.

In its 21st annual report on the life sciences sector, Ernst & Young’s study, Beyond Borders: Global Biotechnology Report 2007, shows strong growth in nearly every industry metric for 2006. Overall capital raised for 2006 was $27.9 billion — a 42 percent increase from the previous year. Overall VC dollars raised globally in 2006 was a record $5.4 billion.

In addition, revenues for public biotech companies globally reached a record high of $70 billion — and revenue growth reached double digit levels in the United States (14 percent), Canada (22 percent), and Europe (14 percent).

Alongside all of this good news (the caveat), the study notes the U.S. biotech industry remains unprofitable in the aggregate, but says industry experts expect to see this improve to profitability by the end of this decade.

In addition, the study found global M&A deals reached the second highest levels in the industry’s history (and deal values with U.S. companies totaled a record $23 billion.) On a more practical level, the study also found the U.S. life sciences industry won 36 product approvals in 2006 — up from 33 approvals in the previous year.

Last, the report showed that U.S. life sciences firms (public and private) earned a total of $59 billion in revenues last year — a 13 percent increase from 2005.

There’s little doubt the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week on the issue of patent rights was momentous. If you missed the story (it didn’t seem to get a whole lot of front-page coverage), the Supremes handed down a decision that may make it harder to get a patent as well as defend one.

The crux of the issue is whether an idea submitted for patenting passes the “obviousness” test. The court, more or less, ruled on the side of mandating that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office be more willing to deny patent protection to something that’s less a true innovation and more an ordinary, incremental advance.

For a completely substantive review of this issue, here’s a link to The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, which offers a detailed post on this topic. Look for links to the actual opinion, major news stories, and to various expert legal reviews of the decision.

Salesforce.com’s Mark Benioff has come up with an idea that is being billed as “Incubator 2.0″ by BusinessWeek.com. As recently reported by BusinessWeek, Benioff last month launched a business incubator within his own company.

The purpose is to bring in startups under one roof and let them at the task of helping build new software solutions for Salesforce.com. The companies invited in get no financing from Benioff and they pay rent (about $20K annually), but they get some traditional incubator services, including watercooler networking with fellow innovators and no worries on office space.

All of this seems fairly unique in the annals of corporate support for R&D of new products and applications. To be sure, there are many who don’t believe business incubation is all its cut out to be, but Benioff’s move certainly is worth tracking in the months ahead. 

There will be a maintenance window involving a possible 10-30 minute iBridge Network Service outage this evening (April 26) between 7:00 pm central and 8:00 pm central to implement several enhancements to the site, specifically related to administrative roles and in preparation for further enhancements to be incorporated at a later date.

We regret any inconvenience you may encounter during this period.

Laura Paglione
Director, iBridge Network

For those interested in learning more about the iBridge Network and how it works, note below our refreshed schedule of upcoming Information Sessions.

These sessions, held via WebEx-based conference calls, each last about one hour. Laura Paglione, iBridge Network director, leads these sessions about iBridge in a fully interactive manner with all attendees.

So here is our schedule of Information Sessions for April through May 2007:

• Friday, April 27, 3:00 PM Central
• Monday, April 30, 10:00 AM Central
• Monday, May 14, 3:00 PM Central
• Thursday, May 31, 10:00 AM Central

Signing up is easy, and we welcome your participation. Just click here and select the Information Session date that works for you. Once you do this, you’ll receive a confirmation email with all of the relevant information and with easy instructions to log into the session.

Any questions, send us an email at info@iBridgeNetwork.org. We look forward to talking with you in the weeks ahead.

The Community Patent Review (CPR) Peer to Patent Project, an initiative of the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School, is inviting people involved in the law and technology world to participate in an important product beta-test.

The product, developed in conjunction with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is an online platform designed to open some patent applications for public-expert (”peer”) review. The followup aim is to help patent examiners make better (possibly faster) decisions on granting patents.

For more detailed information on the mechanics of all this, check out this Washington Post article from last March.

In regard to the beta-testing, it’s by invitation only. Send an email asap if you’re interested in participating to info@peertopatent.org. 

Once you’re accepted as a beta tester, you’ll receive a login and password to access the beta site. Beta testers will be asked to review every nook and cranny of the site. And time is tight for this stage of the project. Testing period runs through the end of this month. Launch is scheduled for June 1.

You also can pre-register to be a community patent reviewer in advance of the June 1 launch. 

One bit of worthy news out of Washington is that Congress appears ready to consider addressing the myriad problems in the U.S. patent protection regime. The Washington Post offers a solid summary of the issues and players at hand. As the Post story notes, there are lots of concerned parties involved, especially universities. Yet, the media focus, if not the hearings focus on the Hill, may lean heavily toward patent issues important to big pharma and software.  

Look for U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee covering patent issues, to schedule hearings soon. The Post says bills in both chambers are due to be introduced any day.

For more background, Rep. Berman held a hearing last February on this topic titled “American Innovation at Risk: The Case for Patent Reform.”