Most TTPs manage numerous Invention Disclosures, technology triage processes, inventiveness assessments, patent filings, technology marketing campaigns, and license negotiations in a typical week or month. Add to this workload inventor relationship maintenance, troubleshooting problems of existing licenses, outreach to external constituencies, internal marketing of the TTO to institutional personnel, office operations, and personnel interactions. It is no wonder that the typical TTP is overworked, probably underpaid, with never enough time or information to do their job optimally. Based on decades of discussions with hundreds of TTPs around the world, it’s clear that there is never sufficient time for a TTP to accomplish all they want to do. All TTPs should accept this fact and develop their own method to deal with it. It is absolutely essential that the TTP develop the skill to successfully manage a portfolio of numerous inventions/IP.
The TTP should look carefully at how they spend the workweek. Tracking time spent on each case and each activity should shed light on how and where the TTP can streamline their work and productivity. For example, if a TTP has forty hours per week available and 160 hours per month, they should determine how much time per month can be spent on any one particular case. This time/case/month depends on several factors: how many cases in total the TTP is managing; how many new invention disclosures the TTP must assess each month; how many cases are in which stage of tech management (i.e., assessment and triage, patent filing, tech marketing, negotiation, monitoring). The TTP should also focus their time on cases that have potential for commercialization (see Topic 5: Basic Tech Triage: Assessing and Selecting Disclosures on the importance of triage), and on activities that will have the most impact on outcome. The busy and effective TTP should remember to use their time wisely, to not get bogged down in activities that are time-wasting and unlikely to produce the result of a signed License Agreement.
Here’s a detailed analysis of the TTP’s time and portfolio management.