University of Pennsylvania revamps Tech Transfer program to increase the selling of inventions

To increase earnings, the university is making the biggest changes to its program in 10 years. An "innovation zone" is developing, too.

In an effort to boost earnings from faculty inventions, the University of Pennsylvania is making the most sweeping changes in a decade in its program to market them.

In reshaping its tech-transfer strategy – already the area’s most prolific in licensing patents – Penn has joined Drexel University and others in forming a 194-acre Keystone Innovation Zone in Philadelphia’s University City section.

The state created the designation last year to encourage start-up technology companies to locate in university districts in hopes they will breed vibrant, high-wage communities of researchers, entrepreneurs and venture-capital financiers of the kind seen around select universities such as Stanford.

When the KIZ program fully unfolds next year, start-ups will get state-tax credits they can sell to larger, profitable companies to raise money.

By Porus P. Cooper

Inquirer Staff Writer

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