Our mission is to stimulate, protect, manage and transfer intellectual property from the University to the private sector for commercialization. Our goal is to fulfill this mission while also enabling you to freely publish and present your work as part of your scholarly research activities. We encourage you to discuss with us any questions or concerns you may have, no matter how early the stage of your research.
Many academic and research projects have the potential to create marketable products or technologies. The OTC, in concert with University of Mississippi research centers and academic departments, helps identify research with commercial potential and promote its appropriate realization in the marketplace.
We assist faculty, staff and employees in fulfilling their responsibility to cooperate with the University in patenting, licensing, and commercializing technology for which they are inventors. The OTC works to stimulate the development of alliances with development partners based on the technology strengths of the University in order to strengthen U.S. industry, especially industry in Mississippi, and works to ensure that inventions conceived and developed in our laboratories are protected and commercialized for the benefit of the inventors, the University, the State of Mississippi, and society.
OTC is responsible for administration of the UM Patents and Inventions Policy and the UM Copyright Policy, as it pertains to intellectual property. Drafting and execution of relevant agreements is a key part of this responsibility. Our office negotiates and manages Material Transfer Agreements, Confidential Disclosure Agreements, Memoranda of Understanding, Inter-Institutional Agreements, Licensing Agreements, and Research Disclosures as well as others.
Primary Goals
- Increase the number of technologies licensed to commercial partners and facilitate the formation of companies based on UM technologies
- Manage an efficient process which is not a burden on faculty, staff and employees and which ensures that research outcomes with commercial potential are protected and then transferred to the private sector
Primary Duties
- Negotiate and execute non-disclosure, material transfer, memoranda of understanding, licensing and other agreements with external parties as appropriate to facilitate external collaborations, technology transfer and economic development
- Help faculty and staff identify commercial opportunities for intellectual property and prepare invention disclosures and other necessary documents
- Help faculty and staff who wish to start a company based on a technology owned by the university to obtain necessary approvals and establish contacts with appropriate resources
- Manage the intellectual property process to ensure that the university obtains protection for inventions with promising commercial potential
- Interface with licensees to ensure timely development of licensed technologies and fulfillment of financial obligations
- Support business development efforts of individual departments and centers/institutes on campus