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How Will My Invention Be Commercialized?
How are inventions from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center licensed to outside companies?
A company may enter into a license with M. D. Anderson to use, manufacture and/or sell products related to the invention. In this situation, the company will pay M. D. Anderson Cancer Center a combination of licensing fees, milestones payments which are based on reaching various steps in the product development process, and royalties when they actually start selling the product(s) or service(s).
How long does it take to receive milestone payments or royalties from an invention?
Payments may begin as early as one year or as long as ten or more years after a licensing agreement is executed.
Payments may be delayed when:
- Additional testing, research, or product development is required
- Governmental approval such as Food and Drug Administration approval is needed
- Development of the final product is particularly difficult
- The market demand for the product proves to be less than originally anticipated
- The company licensing the invention runs into financial trouble.
Is my invention potentially the basis for a start-up company?
Where an invention (or family of related inventions) provides a broad technology platform or a particularly promising single product, it may form the basis of a start-up company. For questions regarding start-up companies, please contact the Office of Technology Development.