About VCU Tech Transfer

VCU Tech Transfer began in 1994 for the purpose of protecting and commercializing valuable VCU inventions and creations.  VCU Tech Transfer is one office that is made up of 2 different legal entities: the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) and the Intellectual Property Foundation (VCU-IPF).  The Office of Technology Transfer resides within the Office of the Vice President for Research at VCU.  The Intellectual Property Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation that is responsible for commercializing VCU discoveries.  The specific functions of the 2 legal entities are given below. 

Office of Technology Transfer
Disclosure
Assignment
Nondisclosure and Material Transfer Agreements

Intellectual Property Foundation
Evaluation
Protection
Marketing
Licensing

Board of Directors

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Office of Technology Transfer

Disclosure
This document reports the invention to the Office of Technology Transfer for evaluation of the intellectual property. The disclosure should include related manuscripts, abstracts or articles which will aid in deciding how to proceed with the invention.

Assignment
The assignment confers legal transfer of title and interest from the inventors to VCU. This document is executed shortly after filing the disclosure.

Nondisclosure and Material Transfer Agreements
These agreements are executed as part of the service that VCU Tech Transfer offers to University members.  Material Transfer Agreements (link to forms) allow VCU researchers to share plasmids, cell lines, proprietary chemical compositions, and other proprietary items with other universities and companies.  Nondisclosure Agreements (link to forms) allow for the sharing of confidential information between VCU and other organizations.

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Intellectual Property Foundation

The VCU-Intellectual Property Foundation (VCU-IPF) was founded in 1994 to promote commercialization of intellectual property created by University members. The foundation evaluates and seeks protection of intellectual property by trademark, copyright, or patent, and then commercializes it through licensing agreements.

VCU-IPF is governed by an independent Board of Directors. One director is appointed by the President of Virginia Commonwealth University and one is appointed by the Board of Visitors of the University. VCU's Vice President for Research and its Director of the Office of Technology Transfer serve as ex-officio directors. The President and Treasurer of the Foundation is currently the Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at VCU.

Evaluation
VCU-IPF evaluates the invention disclosures to access their market value, and to determine whether the intellectual property can and should be protected by patent, copyright or trademark.

Protection
The intellectual property selected for commercialization is protected through the filing of patent, copyright or trademark applications, and in some cases, maintaining the knowledge as a trade secret for commercial purposes.

Marketing
VCU-IPF seeks the best partners for each selected disclosure and then markets the technology to those partners.  Partners may be identified from discussions with the inventors, VCU-IPF staff’s commercial networks or from internal or external market analysis.  If VCU-IPF staff determines that the technology may be suitable to spin-off a new venture, the disclosure will be marketed to venture capitalists and other investors as well as to potential managers for the new company.

Licensing
Once the marketing process is complete and one or more acceptable commercialization partners are interested in the technology, license agreements are negotiated.  The license defines what the University grants to the licensee, what the University receives from the licensee, and specific terms of the University/Corporate relationship.  VCU-IPF seeks fair-market value in license agreements while ensuring that the technology is broadly developed and sold to benefit society.  Licensing includes economic development activities in which technologies are licensed to new companies in the region.  Another important part of the licensing process is license compliance. Continued diligence with our licensees ensures that our partners are complying with the terms and conditions of the agreements.

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Board of Directors

Ms. Donna J. Edmonds
COO and Executive Director
Virginia Israel Biosciences Commercialization Center

Mr. Michael Grisham
VCU President’s Appointee

Ms. Margaret B. McGeorge
Private Investor

Mr. Thomas G. Rosenthal
Board of Visitors
Virginia Commonwealth University

Jerome F. Strauss, III, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University

Mr. Michael Sugerman
Founder
Seven Consulting

Francis L. Macrina, Ph.D.
Vice President for Research
Virginia Commonwealth University

Ivelina S. Metcheva, Ph.D., MBA
Director, Office of Technology Transfer
President, Intellectual Property Foundation
Virginia Commonwealth University

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