Fifteen products developed in Boston University research laboratories were given United States patents during the 2002 fiscal year, BU Office of Technology Transfer director Ashley Stevens said yesterday.
The number of patents that BU was awarded in fiscal year 2002, which began on July first, 2001 and ended on June 30, 2002, decreased by seven compared to fiscal year 2000, according to data available in OTT, a part of the BU Community Technology Fund.
BU was not among the top 10 in number of patents awarded to universities during the fiscal year by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to data published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The University of California system, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology were the top three recipients of patents in both 2002 and 2001, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Stevens said BU’s yearly patent numbers have remained steady for many years.
‘BU’s patents have been in the 15 to 25 range for some years now,’ Stevens said. ‘But we also depend on federal grants and other funding more heavily than patents.’
BU had an average ranking of 42.41, according to the latest OTT survey data encompassing various measures of technology transfer, which was published in 2000 and included 142 American universities. BU ranked 60th in total research expenditures in 2000, with a figure of $155,822,403, Stevens said.
BU also filed a total of 72 patent applications during the same year, which gave them a ranking of 41st. In terms of income received from the patents, BU ranked 80th with a figure of $901,359.
‘Patents only make a modest amount of money for most universities,’ Stevens said. ‘It’s only a matter of chance that you get a real money-making patent.’
But, Stevens said, universities can sometimes get lucky with patents.
‘Columbia University had a simple patent on a type of anemia drug and it has made about $400 million to date,’ Stevens said.
Although BU does not yet measure up to Columbia University or the University of California, it is certainly a powerhouse in terms of a research institution regionally, according to Stevens.
‘Harvard and MIT are up there in terms of patents and research funds, but Tufts, BC and Northeastern are behind us,’ Stevens said. ‘I’m surprised that MIT is doing well because one of the biggest indicators of patents rewarded and research funding is whether the university has a medical school or not.’
The role of the OTT is to consult with inventors of patents to make sure their products are sound and marketable.
‘Anyone can make a patent or invent something,’ Stevens said. ‘Our job is to make sure that it is good.’
Some of the inventors have included former BU faculty Charles R. Cantor in the Biomedical Engineering department and Jacqueline Sharon, who is in the Pathology department of the BU School of Medicine.
Cantor’s invention is being used by California-based company ‘Sequenom.’
‘It’s used to sequence DNA,’ Stevens said. ‘He was actually one of the architects of the Human Genome Project when it started.’
Sharon’s product also deals with health care, according to Stevens.
‘Jacqueline’s patent was a new way to make antibody based drugs,’ he said. ‘It was picked up by a company based in Copenhagen called Symphogen A/S and now widely used in both Europe and the United States.’
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