Today marks the 10th Annual event of STC.UNM’s Innovation Awards.  A record number of 45 inventors and creators will be honored tonight for receiving issued patents, registered copyrights and issued trademarks based on University of New Mexico technologies and creative ideas.  The awardees are a diverse group of faculty, center members, administrators (dept. chairs, dean), post-docs, and students.  One is an STC Faculty Board member, Mansoor Sheik-Bahae, and one if the former STC Board Chair, Joe Cecchi.  All four of our Innovation Fellows have newly-issued patents. (Steve Brueck, Larry Sklar, Steve Hersee, and 2013 Innovation Fellow, Graham Timmins).  From this group, 17 individuals are affiliated with  start-up companies.  What an impressive group!

Joining us to honor these talented folks is our keynote speaker, John Chavez, President of the New Mexico Angels.  The partnership between NMA and STC is strong, resulting in 5 new start-ups in the last few years.

Some of the start-up companies, based on UNM technologies, will be displaying their companies at the event.

UNM President, Bob Frank, and other senior administrators from UNM will be present to add their celebratory comments.

For a complete list of those being honored tonight, please see https://stc.unm.edu/news/news.php?newsid=429.

Lisa Kuuttila, CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer, STC.UNM

From UNM’s Monday Message by President Bob Frank:

As a research university with an associated health sciences center, UNM is home to some of the most extraordinary and innovative minds in the country.  Since the establishment of STC.UNM as the “innovation door to the University of New Mexico” in 1995, we have made significant strides in technology commercialization, but we can do more to support the innovators and entrepreneurs who have the power to drive our New Mexico economy. It is my great pleasure to announce that STC.UNM, under the leadership of CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer Lisa Kuuttila, will be responsible for implementing UNM’s economic development initiatives. The UNM2020 strategic plan includes economic development as key goal, and Lisa and her team at STC.UNM thoroughly understand the competitive environment of our knowledge-based economy in which the pace of technology development and commercialization has dramatically accelerated. The advancement of this model and our strategic statewide partnerships will position UNM as a leader in innovation-based economic development.

Victor Hwang, one of the authors of the book, The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley, spoke today at the KiMo Theatre to Albuquerque’s university and economic development communities on how to nurture an innovation ecosystem based on his Rainforest concept for economic growth.  He said that three words are the keys to unleashing innovation in our ecosystem:  FEAR (overcoming), TRUST (fostering) and LOVE (nurturing what makes us human).  These are unusual words to describe economic development.  The words symbolize new ways to plan economies and encourage us to continue to work toward getting our environmental conditions right.  We have a great start in Albuquerque!

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

In September 2011, the America Invents Act (AIA) was signed into law.  The AIA makes many changes to U.S. patent law, some minor and some major.  Various pieces of the law have become effective over the past year or so.  However, the biggest change for universities will take place on March 16, 2013.  After that date, any patent application filed will be subject to a “first-to-file” system instead of the current U.S. system of “first to invent.”

A “first-to-invent” system gives priority to the first person to invent.  Evidence (such as a laboratory notebook) supporting conception of the claimed invention prior to the filing date of the application may be considered to determine the first inventor of the invention.

A “first-to-file” system gives priority to the application/invention with the earliest filing date.

With respect to any patent application filed after March 16, 2013, an applicant will no longer be able to rely upon an earlier date of conception when prior art has an earlier date than the effective filing date, if the prior art is not his or her own disclosure.  Thus, an inventor who waits to file an application may risk losing his or her patent rights to an inventor who invented later but filed first.

What does this mean for university inventors, UNM and STC?  The major implication for all of us is that it will be important for inventors to disclose their inventions to STC as soon as possible, before making any disclosures to third parties. It will then be important for STC to file a provisional patent application on the idea immediately.  Those UNM inventors who work with STC know that we can do so quickly. Sometimes we have to file a provisional patent application on the same day that we receive the information, due to public disclosure considerations.  However, after March 16, 2013, if a third party learns of your idea and files a patent application before STC files, the AIA makes it much more difficult to counteract and you as the inventor may lose the rights to your idea, even if you were first to invent.

In order to take full advantage of the “first-to-invent” system before it expires on March 16^th, STC would like to file as many provisional patent applications as possible on new UNM technology by March 15th.  So, if you are a UNM inventor and have new technology, in whatever stage of development, that has not been disclosed yet to STC, please contact STC as soon as possible

Obviously, the AIA poses challenges for the university community, which has a primary mission to disseminate new knowledge.  STC certainly does not advocate slowing down the pace of disseminating your research results.  We simply ask that you disclose them to STC before you communicate the results to a third party, even if you consider the work to be quite preliminary.  We will work to file a patent application quickly so that you can move forward on your timeline with public disclosure.  Even though we would prefer not to have this change in the patent law, I think that STC and UNM are well positioned to manage the first-to-file changes. 

If you would like a further summary of this and other changes from the AIA, go to the STC website and download the presentation on the AIA made recently by one of STC’s patent attorneys, at

 https://stc.unm.edu/news/eventsandseminars.php?eventid=161.

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

Albuquerque Economic Development has released a video about the city of Albuquerque (see the STC web site home page for a link to the video at www.stc.unm.edu). The video really captures the spirit of the city and New Mexico. It is no surprise that we attract talented, experienced entrepreneurs to the region, who start companies based on University of New Mexico technologies. If you have a few minutes, it is worth your time to look at the video. The direct link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkzHsJ7L84Q.

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce (GACC), President, Terri Cole, and STC are working together to highlight biotechnology and biomedical business opportunities emerging from the University of New Mexico.  At each GACC Board meeting, STC is introducing a UNM Health Sciences Center faculty member who is actively engaged in research and commercialization.  This morning, I had the opportunity to introduce Eric Prossnitz, Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Co-Director of the UNM Cancer Center Women’s Cancer Research Program, to the Board.  Eric spoke about his research in a new estrogen receptor and its potential applications in treating many diseases.  Eric has 5 issued US patents and many more in the works.  He gave an impressive presentation about his work!

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

As an engineer, the phrase, Engineering Serendipity, makes the right and left sides of my brain want to go to war.  What does this mean and why is it important? 

In thinking about economic growth, we know that innovation is key to our future in New Mexico.  A Rainforest approach to economic growth focuses on the the recipe, not just the ingredients, of innovation.  It emulates evolution, allowing atoms (people) to tinker, eventually creating new weeds (companies) and encouraging their growth.

The concept of a Rainforest is not easily embraced.  As humans, we gravitate toward top-down solutions to our problems.  Leaders like to define and control outcomes.  However, innovation is serendipitous.  Thus, we need to be able to engineer serendipity, not outcomes.  The way we do this is by bridging social barriers and building trust. Not easily done, but critically important to our economic future.

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

STC recently held its annual staff retreat.  One of our activities was to update our mission and vision statements.  Several years have gone by since the statements were updated and STC is engaged in more economic development activity than ever before related to the New Mexico innovation ecosystem (Rainforest in the Desert).  Thus, our updated mission and vision statements, now on the STC web site, reflect this additional emphasis.    — Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

Vision:

As a keystone organization, STC.UNM will play a vital role in the New Mexico innovation ecosystem.  We will be a boundary-spanning canopy for technology commercialization worldwide.

Mission:

To foster a Rainforest int he Desert, STC.UNM nurtures innovation and commercial development for the UNM community.

I attend many economic development meetings in the course of my position and there is at least one consistent theme that we often discuss — New Mexico culture not being entrepreneurial.  The theme is often linked to New Mexico’s dependence on federal funding.  While it is clear that New Mexico relies heavily on federal funding, I am not sure the connection to the lack of an entrepreneurial culture in New Mexico is accurate.

The recently released data on the 2011 State Entrepreneurship Index (from the UNL Bureau of Business Research) tells a different story about New Mexico.  The index is made up of five factors with New Mexico’s rank noted after each factor - growth in establishments (10), growth in establishments per capita (12), business formation rate (31), patents per thousand residents (32), and average non-farm proprietor income (40).  New Mexico’s overall average entrepreneurial index is 27, ahead of states like Arizona (39), Florida (35) and Indiana (40).  In particular, the growth in new establishments in New Mexico ranks us 10th in the nation.  Perhaps we have more of an entrepreneurial culture in New Mexico than we realize!

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM

STC has had the opportunity to host three professional technology transfer interns for the past few weeks.  From left to right, Michal Chichocki, Anna Jankowska, and Blazej, scientists from Poznan University in Poland are pictured.  The group learned about technology transfer at STC, made connections at the University of New Mexico and enjoyed a beautiful fall in New Mexico.  We have enjoyed having them at STC and strengthening our ties with Poland thru ProRegio, the government organization sponsoring the interns.

Lisa Kuuttila, President & CEO, STC.UNM