OTD's Mission

OTD is responsible for managing the intellectual property assets of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Our mission is to help turn academic research into tangible products and services, while returning income to the inventors and to the University to support further research and education.

What We Do

OTD collects and evaluates invention disclosures from the University of Nebraska faculty, staff and students. We begin our process by meeting with the inventors to learn about potential applications for their new inventions. Technical and market risks are assessed through a combination of database research and industry expert interviews. The process culminates with an Invention Assessment Meeting (IAM) in which inventors learn about the prospect for commercialization and patent protection. For marketable inventions, we work with inventors to find companies that might be interested in obtaining a license to the patent rights for the purpose of developing new products and services. If successfully licensed, cash royalties collected provide funding to the inventors' departments and schools, as well as income for the inventors themselves. Although patentable inventions do constitute the majority of OTD's licensing activities, we also handle copyrights (software), Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), and Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs).

Everyone Wins

While it is relatively easy to measure OTD's performance in direct financial terms, it is more difficult to assess the less tangible benefits of technology licensing. Nonetheless, the successful commercialization of University of Nebraska research provides valuable benefits to various stakeholders including:

• University of Nebraska
• University of Nebraska inventors
• The State of Nebraska
• Industry
• The U.S. Government
• The Public