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Commercializing New Technologies
Class Term:
Fall Term 2021-2022
Catalog Number:
5135
Professor(s):
Professor
Lecture
Credits:
3 (3 Contact, 0 Field)
Graduation Requirements:
Professional Skills
Experiential Learning
Enrollment Limit:
10
Priority:
General Enrollment Course
Full Year Course:
No
Category:
Standard Courses
Additional Information
All course registrants will be required to undergo an interview with the Director of the Innovation Practice Institute in order to receive approval to participate. Many factors will be considered in making the decision on which students will be approved for participation, including but not limited to: Life experience Participation in related courses in law school (e.g., Business Organizations, IP-related courses), other graduate studies, or undergraduate studies JD/MBA Program candidacy Previous employment experience in relevant fields
Grading Details
A grading sheet with criteria will be provided for each of these: Class participation 15%; Project 70% (includes a team participation component); Project Presentation 15%.
Description
The key challenge addressed in this joint project course between the Katz business school and the law school is how to commercialize new technologies. Commercialization is the process of transforming an invention (i.e. a new technique or artifact that performs a useful function) into an innovation (i.e. a product or service that creates value in a specific use). Whether a new technology originates in a University, in an established company, or with an individual inventor, several issues must be addressed in order to determine whether it is worth investing in further, and to decide how the technology can be commercialized for maximum long-term value.
We will focus on four types of analyses as input to a commercialization strategy: (i) technology analysis, (ii) market analysis, (iii) competitive assessment, and (iii) business model evaluation. For each, you will be provided with one or two practical articles, which outline an analytical tool or approach, and we will discuss their application to one of the cases. Although we’ll walk through these steps in the order listed, they will need to be conducted iteratively (e.g. as you learn more about market opportunities you may wish to revisit your initial assessment of the technology’s core elements).
Throughout the course, law students will have the opportunity to assist the team in assessing legal matters that impact commercialization (from intellectual property matters, to regulatory landscape impacts, to alliance considerations) while also gaining an understanding of key business goals, strategies and tactics.
This course has been flagged as a distance education course. This means this class is one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other (other than specially accommodated students) for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously.