Jesse Kindra is the head of the Intellectual Property Office and the Chief Technology Transfer Officer at Berkeley Lab. In this episode, he talks about some of the many technologies from around the Lab that have made the transition to the marketplace. He also discusses the entrepreneurship training programs that the Intellectual Property Office offers to interested Lab researchers and engineers.
RUNNING TIME: 10:28
2 Comments
Interesting stuff. What about advice for those of us who believe our mission to support society at this public institution is based in large part in making our research available to the broader society as shared knowledge? Of course I believe that private companies should not be subsidized by public dollars, but at the same time I have zero personal interest in entrepreneurship, in fact, that’s why I work here at LBL and not the private sector.
What should I know about circumstances where working with IPO is important to the laboratory mission when my instinct is everything public domain, everything open source? This podcast focusses on folks who already know they wish to license their insights.
Thank you for your query, Andrew, we went straight to the Intellectual Property Office for comment:
“Yes, openly shared knowledge is a vital path to bring science solutions to the world. Technology transfer, highlighted in the podcast, is another critical path to ensure the work we do at the Lab benefits society. It is a strategic mechanism to engage the private sector in transforming scientific breakthroughs into real-world applications and products, often bridging the ‘valley of death’ and ensuring that select technologies and innovations with high potential are adopted.
Tech transfer is also an important priority for the DOE because it supports the nation’s economic growth and strengthens our leadership in science and technology. The DOE requires all inventions and software to be disclosed to IPO so that we can help determine (in partnership with researchers) which technologies are appropriate to publicly disseminate or commercialize through tech transfer. We also help to obtain the required DOE approval for dissemination of all software, including open source software. If you have any particular situation that you would like to discuss, please feel free to reach out and we would be happy to have a conversation.”