Making Tech Transfer Easier

August / September 2010 By: Heather Lammers Volume 8 Number 4

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Finding that new "aha" technology can be like finding that proverbial needle in a haystack, especially when know there have been more than 7 million U.S. patents granted since 1883 covering everything from ordering online with a mouse click (patent owned by Amazon.com) to Samuel Hopkins's method for improving the production of potash, which was the first patent signed by President George Washington.

Today's technology seekers interested in breakthroughs in renewable energy and energy efficiency can leverage a new website to quickly access patents and patent applications developed by Department of Energy laboratories and other research institutions funded by DOE.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed the Technology Commercialization Portal (techportal.eere.energy.gov) for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Through streamlined searching, the portal whittles down the more than 7 million patents and patent applications to a more manageable 14,000.

The idea for the portal came about as the Alliance for Sustainable Energy was bidding on a contract to manage NREL for DOE. "DOE said if you want to run NREL, tell us what are you going to do that's new and innovative when it comes to commercializing technologies," said Bill Farris, NREL’s vice president of commercialization and technology transfer. “There is a lot of science and technology going on at NREL and other national labs, but to have the maximum market impact you need to be able to move those technologies out of the lab.”

“DOE funds billions of dollars in research and you can't find all of that technology advertised and described in one place," Casey Porto, senior vice president for commercialization and deployment, said. “The Alliance felt that this was something we needed to take on, if we were going to tout 'commercialization' as a key differentiator for NREL. Fortunately, DOE/EERE quickly embraced the idea and provided funding so that the project could be fast-tracked.”

The motto of the commercialization team at DOE is "Out of the Labs and Into the Market." Wendolyn Holland, EERE’s senior advisor for commercialization, firmly believes that the portal is the most effective way to get investors looking at technologies available for licensing.  "We want to enable each lab to market its own technologies and facilitate its success in the market," she said.  "A top-down approach won't work; instead, we want to encourage each lab to maintain its identity and differentiate itself.

 “We can create value in ‘one-stop shopping’ and decreasing the market frictions by providing the capital markets with a single site. The portal provides anyone focused on clean energy technologies with the ability to find those that have been created through DOE—and taxpayer—funding.  This is the power of ‘mass customization’ the internet allows us.” The portal gathers patent data by tapping into the Patent Office database and searching the millions of entries for anything funded by DOE. Content administrators from NREL or any of the other participating national labs, using a simple content management system, can then add marketing summaries to help businesses interested in licensing the technology understand its potential uses.

“A patent is a legal document written from a legal perspective—what we wanted to do was create and include the marketing summaries written by the labs that tout the technology features, potential applications in the market, advantages, diagrams and contact info," said Matt Ringer, NREL technology commercialization program manager. "You won't see one of these summaries for every patent; rather we wanted the laboratories to be able to highlight the technologies they wanted to focus on, so that technologies seekers could find them."

Portal users can:
• Search thousands of clean energy-related patents available for licensing as well as patent applications
• Browse marketing summaries of clean energy technologies available for licensing organized into 14 technology areas
•Identify the total number of patents and technology marketing summaries contained on the site
• Sign up for e-mail updates
• Link directly to the DOE laboratories that developed the available technologies to get more information

“You want to maintain each lab's identity and ability to market their own technologies, licensing and do their own business," Ringer said. "But there is a tremendous amount of value in being able to go to one place to find the information you are looking for. That's what the portal gives all participants—focused searches on clean energy technologies, the ability to look at new technologies created through DOE funding and licensable from the owners.”

“Because of the enthusiasm this portal has generated we will be looking to grow the site features. The main goal is to enhance the marketing summaries, to help EERE broadly market technologies they have created.” Other features under consideration include:
• Social media features that would allow networking and interaction between technology managers
• Expanding the data to include other federal agencies that are researching clean energy, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA
• Ways for technology seekers to find complementary technologies for licensing.

Heather Lammers is with NREL’s media relations.