Campus Highlights: UC Los Angeles

Campus Notes:

Over 75% of the UCLA invention portfolio is managed by UCLA’s Business Research Partnerships (BRP) Office. Most of the 84 UCLA inventions remaining in OTT’s portfolio were disclosed prior to the establishment of an independent UCLA licensing office. OTT continues to receive some new UCLA disclosures when multiple UC campuses are involved or the technology is closely related to one already administered by OTT.

The level of patent and licensing activity for OTT-managed cases decreased slightly in FY97 as the campus continued to take responsibility for the vast majority of newer UCLA inventions.

For OTT-managed cases, over 95% of FY97 income was generated by two inventions. Due to unfavorable patent litigation results, the royalty rate paid by the licensee on the Nicotine Patch was reduced, causing income to drop by over $1 million to $530,000 in FY97. This decrease was largely offset by an $841,000 increase in earned royalties on the Treatment for Intracranial Aneurysms. This invention received FDA approval less than two years ago. It earned over $2 million in FY97 and is anticipated to continue generating large royalty streams in the foreseeable future.

For the OTT-managed cases, net legal expenses dropped $150,000 in FY97. Net patent prosecution expenses totaled only $14,000 in FY97, and $19,000 was spent on an interference action that has now been resolved in the University’s favor. The majority of net legal expenses were incurred to resolve a dispute related to a company’s research agreement and associated option agreement with the University. The $120,000 decrease in inventor share payments from FY96 to FY97 reflected a drop in income from FY95 to FY96. The State share remained stable in FY97, and there was a small drop in operating expenses.

There was close to a 15% increase in the disclosure of new inventions to BRP and nearly a 30% increase in first patent filings. Although there was a decrease in the number of new license agreements and resulting revenue, many negotiations were initiated that may be brought to closure during the next fiscal period.

In FY97, adjusted gross income dropped 42% for the BRP-managed portfolio, which consists largely of younger inventions still in the developmental stage. Most income continues to come from one-time or periodic fees rather than ongoing streams of royalties. Income may therefore fluctuate substantially from year to year.

BRP net legal expenses dropped even though patent filing activity increased because BRP received over $300,000 more in patent reimbursements from licensees in FY97 as compared to FY96. Changes in inventor and State shares reflect income generated over the past two years.

A combination of all the above factors resulted in a $10,000 increase in net income from FY96 to FY97 for the OTT-managed portfolio. UCLA also received $16,000 in interest earnings from this portfolio, bringing the net campus distribution to nearly $860,000. During this same period there was a $100,000 increase in net loss for the BRP-managed cases.