The Purdue Research Foundation currently makes around $7 million per year from licenses on patents owned by Purdue staff and students.
For 2014, the school placed sixteenth on a list of all universities worldwide in terms of number of patents filed – a list PRF leaders didn’t even know existed until they were told Purdue was on it.
But as officials expand their patent protections, they say they’re not looking for the next Google on which the school can strike it rich.
WBAA’s Stan Jastrzebski talked with Office of Technology Commercialization head Chad Pittman about using the patents to build the school’s brand instead of its bank account.