AUTM Hot Topic Debates

You do not want to miss two debates on very hot topics at the AUTM 2010 Annual Meeting. Come view lively discussion of two controversial topics, which are the talk of the technology transfer worldright now. Read the press release.

 Read the latest blog from Alan Bentley about the debate topics at the Annual Meeting.

These debates, which are open to all registrants of the Annual Meeting and the press, will explore both sides of each issue, so that we can begin to appreciate each others’ perspectives and become better equipped to serve our faculty inventors, to advocate our positions and to advise our institutions on these matters.

Your participation is important to the dialogue as well. AUTM will use Twitter and note cards to gather your questions during the live event in New Orleans. We also encourage you to e-mail questions in advance. Type “AUTM Debate” in your e-mail subject line and e-mail your questions to info@autm.net.

Your voice is important on both of these issues.

Thursday, March 18
1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
AUTM Debate Forum: Role of Inventors in Negotiating License Transactions
Moderator:     Jon Soderstrom, Ph.D., Yale University
Debaters:       Renee Kaswan, IP-Advocate.org, Robert S. MacWright, Ph.D., J.D., Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP, Marcel D. Mongeon, M.B.A., LL.B., Mongeon Consulting Inc., Robin L. Rasor, University of Michigan
Organizer:     James Scott Elmer, J.D., St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Should you include your faculty inventors in licensing negotiations for their inventions? Should you let them influence the outcome or just keep them informed? What if they are consulting with a prospective licensee or have competing plans to form a startup? Perhaps we should just take institutions out of the equation and let faculty own their inventions? Will allowing inventors to control commercialization efforts result in improved commercial outcomes? These questions and others will be debated in this session by a panel of experts who will explore the appropriate role inventors should play when it comes to owning and commercializing their inventions.


Friday, March 19
1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
AUTM Debate Forum: Perspectives on Patenting Genomic Inventions
Moderator:     Jon Soderstrom, Ph.D., Yale University
Debaters:       Wesley D. Blakeslee, Johns Hopkins University, Robert M. Cook-Deegan, M.D., Duke University, Michael W. Henry, Athena Diagnostics Inc., Debra G.B. Leonard, M.D., Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Lori Pressman, Harris & Harris Group Inc.
 Organizers:   Ann M. Hammersla, J.D., National Institutes of Health, Bruce Goldstein, J.D., National Institutes of Health

Over the past three to five years, a conundrum has emerged: How do you make new, gene-based diagnostic technologies (both patented and unpatented) commercially available? There is broad consensus among life-science researchers, clinicians and licensing managers across a wide spectrum of stakeholders (academic institutions, non-profit biomedical organizations, for-profit corporations, and the NIH), on the general principle that new diagnostic technologies must be broadly available for research and easily accessed by patients, while still allowing innovators to recoup a fair return. How to achieve these goals, however, remains a common hurdle for all stakeholders to overcome. The rapid advances in the field add to the complexity of achieving the varied goals. This panel will allow the stakeholders and the audience to identify the various interests and challenges, to exchange viewpoints and to explore different options.