The University of Minnesota finalized a license agreement for CaSTT (Commerce and Search for Technology Transfer), an e-commerce and marketing framework for technology transfer offices in universities and research institutions.
CaSTT is a package of software tools and consulting services that allow technology transfer offices to make technologies available for licensing in a searchable, online database and, in some cases, execute licenses from start to finish. The software uses advanced search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase the prominence of technologies in online search results and users can electronically submit inquiries about specific pieces of intellectual property. For some technologies for which a nonexclusive license agreement exists, users can use complete the agreement online.
CaSTT, LLC, is the first company formed from university technology that was incubated in an Internal Business Unit and subsequently spun out by the Office for Technology Commercialization (OTC). Internal Business Units (IBUs) are a new, innovative approach to moving university technologies from the lab to the marketplace. They address a small number of technologies that are nearly market-ready but need some limited investment and market development in order to be more attractive as startup opportunities. IBUs provide additional opportunities to launch startup companies based on university research, helping to drive Minnesota's economic growth and create jobs.
"This is a great story for the university's OTC," said Rick Huebsch, technology manager for OTC. "CaSTT is a solution that will be used by OTC and other technology transfer offices to market and license their research technologies. The additional good news is that it helped launch another Minnesota-based startup company."