The Technology Transfer Office (TTO), a business unit of the
Ball State Innovation Corporation, is responsible for managing
intellectual property (IP) for Ball State University.
Whenever a faculty member, student, staff member, or visitor participating in Ball State programs or using Ball State funds, resources, or facilities creates a work of IP, the office facilitates the management of the IP, including identifying the inventors/creators, determining IP ownership, and establishing royalty distribution.
The office handles all the patents, copyrights, trademarks, and tangible research property issues, including:
- soliciting and analyzing invention disclosures from faculty, students, and staff
- analyzing commercialization feasibility of university intellectual property and marketing strategies
- licensing “tangible research property” for commercial use
- licensing patents and copyrights for commercial use
- facilitating faculty and technology start-ups
- advising faculty on intellectual property issues
- fostering inventor participation in the technology transfer process
- educating campus researchers about the technology transfer process at Ball State
The office’s goals are to facilitate the transfer to public use and benefit of technology developed at Ball State and, where consistent with the first goal, to provide an additional source of unrestricted income to support research and education at Ball State. TTO works with the Ball State developers of technology and with the industry in a manner that does not interfere with the normal flow of technical and academic information through publications, conferences, and consulting.