Licenses and Options

Licensing Staff Continue to Produce at a High Level

The next step in the commercialization process for protected intellectual property is licensing. The number of exclusive licenses executed is a leading indicator of licensing revenue and the commercial development of new products and services five to ten years later.

Key Findings

• Technology transfer offices (TTOs) continue to license primarily to small companies as compared to large companies and startups. The reported share of licensing from small companies grew from 44.4% in 2015 to 58.7% in 2019.
• TTOs are again record numbers of non-exclusive licenses, growing to 5,645, an increase of 4.5% over 2018.
• Staff were even more productive in 2019, averaging 8.35 licenses/options per licensing staff. The average  TTOs continue to execute an average of 1.8 exclusive licenses per licensing full-time equivalent (FTE). 
• TTOs continue to manage a large volume of active licenses and options, averaging 18 active agreements per total office FTE over the past 5 years.