The Georgia Tech Research Corporation
Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) provides research administration, contracting and intellectual property management services to the faculty, staff and students of Georgia Tech. As a not-for-profit entity and as the recipient of research funding from the United States government, GTRC is subject to the provisions of the Bayh-Dole Act and related legislation P.L. 96-517, P.L. 98-620, and 37 CFR Part 401, and Internal Revenue Service Procedure 2007-47, Guidelines for Research Agreements.
The Office of Technology Licensing
As a part of GTRC, the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) is tasked with managing and protecting the Institute’s intellectual property; commercializing these technologies through various contractual mechanisms; protecting the interest of the Institute’s researchers; ensuring compliance with government regulations and contractual obligations; and developing and fostering long-term industry relationships.
As a public university, Georgia Tech has a responsibility to ensure its research results are available for the benefit of the general public. Entering into commercial arrangements for the further development of a technology is often the only way by which the Institute is able to ensure that the technology is made available to the community. The Institute’s technologies are usually early-stage, requiring substantial investment in their further development before they can be disseminated by the markets. Most companies will not normally commit the resources to further develop a technology without an agreement ensuring that it will receive commercial benefit from its investment should further development be successful.
Commercialization Success
Georgia Institute of Technology has a very proud history of successful technology commercialization and research collaboration with industry. In 2000, Georgia Tech was ranked number one nationally in university-industry technology transfer by the Southern Technology Council. This praise was underscored in 2006, when Georgia Tech was once again recognized as a top technology transfer university in the study, Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization.
Further, Georgia Tech is among the leaders in protecting the innovations generated by our researchers. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s 2005 report, Georgia Tech ranked 9th among U.S. universities in the number of issued patents for that year. Similarly, based on compiled data from the USPTO, Georgia Tech ranked 3rd among all patent holders in the state of Georgia for the 5 year period ending December 2007, behind AT & T Intellectual Property Corporation and Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.