Professors at the University of California received 439 new
patents in 2003, making it the nation’s leading university in
new patents for the 10th year in a row, according to a report
released late last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
The California Institute of Technology posted a distant second
with 139 new patents, and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, the University of Texas and Stanford University rounded
out the top five.
UCLA is also high on the list. As of 2003, UCLA had 348 active
patents and 259 foreign patents, according to Andrew Neighbour,
associate vice-chancellor for research.
Complete data on 2003 patents is still being compiled.
“We are usually filing about 50 new patents each year and
being awarded about 50 to 60 each year,” Neighbour said.
Most of the UC’s patents are improvements in technology,
medicine, or biomedical technology.
For example, in 2003 Jason Speyer, a UCLA mechanical engineering
professor, and Laurence Mutuel, one of his advanced graduate
students, patented a method and apparatus for determining an
airplane’s attitude (the position relative to the ground, not
to be confused with altitude).
Speyer and Mutuel’s invention uses a global positioning
device to measure a plane’s velocity and then applies
equations of motion to determine pitch and roll in relation to the
ground.
Speyer said that this invention, if used with a control system,
could be used to help confused pilots navigate safely out of
clouds.
“You could control the airplane with (the invention), and
the guy who was in the airplane getting totally confused could sit
back with the light on reading a newspaper,” Speyer said.
Other inventions at UCLA in 2003 include a more compact machine
that produces high resolution imaging for breast cancer at lower
cost than was previously possible.
Patents generate a large amount of income both for the UC and
many of its scientists.
In 2002 the 980 commercial inventions currently under patent by
the UC earned $88.1 million. The UC currently holds 5,911 active
patents.
Some of the most profitable inventions have included the
Hepatitis B vaccine ““ patented by UC San Francisco in 1979
and earned $21,474,000 in 2002 ““ and the nicotine patch,
patented in 1984 by UCLA, which earned $534,000.
One of the UC’s most profitable and best known inventions
is a stent for treating brain aneurysms, which was patented by UCLA
in 1989 and earned the UC $6.8 million in 2002.
Inventors receive 35 percent of the net income, their labs
receive 15 percent, 25 percent goes to the UC general fund, and the
remaining 25 percent goes toward legal and operating costs.
Legal fees for getting a patent approved range from $20,000 to
$50,000 for a domestic patent and may be as much as several hundred
thousand dollars for a foreign patent, Neighbour said.
The university’s consistent success in generating new
patents could potentially be a bargaining chip for the UC Board of
Regents when they ask the governor to reconsider the drastic cuts
his budget proposes to the UC.
The large revenue from these patents is also consistent with the
message that the University of California is an essential component
of California’s economy.