Media Contacts:

David Winwood, Technology Transfer, 919/515-7199 or david_winwood@ncsu.edu

Nov. 27, 2000

NC State Among Top 20 Universities for Licensing Revenues, Patents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

North Carolina State University is ranked 17th nationally in licensing revenues and patent activity, according to a new survey of 140 major U.S. research universities, by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). NC State is ranked fourth nationally in the number of startup companies formed. Only Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California system formed more startups.

NC State earned $7,761,000 in revenue in 1999 from 60 licenses, placing it just behind Harvard University (16th) and ahead of Tulane University (18th). No other North Carolina university cracked the top 40. The university issued 30 new patents during the year and formed eight startup companies, up from five the previous year, according to the AUTM.

The increase in licensing revenue was due in part to income from a nontraditional source -- textbooks created by faculty members in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

"We earn most of our royalties on licenses to technologies from engineering and agriculture-related inventions, but our 1999 revenues were bolstered considerably by a license originating in our College of Humanities and Social Sciences," said David Winwood, assistant vice chancellor and director of technology transfer. "A series of social studies textbooks based on the North Carolina middle school curriculum was developed by faculty members and licensed to a major publishing house."

Columbia University ranked first in this year's survey, with more than $89.1 million in revenues and 212 patents. Other North Carolina universities ranked in the survey are: Wake Forest University, 42nd, with about $2.78 million in revenues and three patents issued; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 51st, with about $1.63 million in revenues and 41 patents; Duke University, 53rd, with about $1.57 million in revenues and 43 patents; and East Carolina University, 120th, with $76,000 in revenues and two patents.

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