Until recently, much of my career was spent as a writer in advertising agencies, and one of the major parts of that job is learning a little about a lot of things. When I came to Emory as a Marketing Specialist in the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), working alongside brilliant people who’ve dedicated years to studying specific topics, I knew I was in for a steep learning curve. Biotech industry negotiations? Licensing technologies? Protecting intellectual property (IP)? We do all this and more at OTT. Fortunately, our teams of highly qualified professionals can expertly tackle these tasks. From them, I’ve learned just how instrumental OTT is in improving our world every day.
What is OTT?
OTT is the intersection of innovation at Emory. As inventors work to introduce their technologies to the world, we champion their efforts by bringing their ideas from the lab to the marketplace. Through handling IP protection, providing pathways to commercialization, and securing market placement, OTT allows innovators to do what they do best: research, develop, and discover. Their groundbreaking innovations can help save lives; OTT facilities turning that knowledge into real products that help real people every day.
Of course, we can’t do all of this without some very talented teams, led by Associate VP for Research and Executive Director Todd Sherer, PhD.
Licensing: The largest team in the office, Licensing includes licensing professionals whose primary duties include case management for Emory IP. This includes activities such as identifying technologies with commercial applications; evaluating the commercial potential of inventions; identifying potential licensees; and drafting and negotiating license agreements.
Contracting: Contract specialists are responsible for negotiating and executing unfunded contracts. They manage, negotiate, and execute unfunded research related contracts such as Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Data Use/Transfer Agreements (DUA/DTA), Collaborative Research Agreements (CRAs), and Non-Disclosure Agreements (CDA, RDA, NDA).
Marketing: The marketing team is responsible for both the office’s marketing and branding and the marketing of available technologies. They accomplish this through continuous updating of owned media (social, blog, and annual reports, for example); executing nonconfidential summaries and specific marketing strategies for each technology; and building industry relationships.
Faculty and Start-Up Services: Our Faculty and Start-Up Services team works closely with faculty to discuss their research and intellectual property, to foster innovation, identify their intellectual property, form and support start-up companies, and assist them with transnational funding.
Patent Group: This team focuses on protecting Emory’s IP by handling all unlicensed patent prosecution. They prepare and prosecute patents in addition to providing intellectual property counseling to OTT staff and faculty.
Post License: This team monitors licensees’ performance post-license and ensures the university’s compliance with all government reporting obligations under the Bayh-Dole Act.
Finance: The finance team is integral to our office’s operations. They oversee financials related to revenue and legal expenses, which includes preparing revenue estimates and distributions, processing legal invoices, and managing deposits.
Our dedicated teams work with one another every day, but we also work with the Office of Research Administration (ORA) toward our common goal of providing support to faculty in their pursuit of exceptional research. ORA offers in-house support for Emory students, faculty, staff, and partners; OTT takes the next step of connecting them to companies who can turn their research into products.
It’s gratifying to work in OTT. Not only are you working toward a better, healthier world; you’re also working with kind, hardworking people who care about the cause, too. We call ourselves the OTTers, and we promote intra-office camaraderie with our monthly OTTer award: an award that goes to the licensing associate with the highest number of deals, other agreements, and marketing activities each month.
We also like to share cool facts and fun videos about the water-loving creatures. (Did you know otters hold hands while they sleep? It’s otterly adorable.) To learn more about Team OTT, visit our newly updated Meet the Team page for a detailed look into who we are and what we do. And keep up with us on LinkedIn and Twitter!