WORCESTER Led by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the states public university system raked in $40 million in licensing fees in 2010.

The UMass system ranked 13th among 183 institutions participating in the 20th annual survey of licensing fee revenues by the Association of University Technology Managers. This was the second consecutive year UMass placed in the top 15. UMass was one of only two New England universities in the top 15, with MIT. The 2010 data are the latest available.

Licensing fees are generated when institutions charge companies to use their patented research discoveries.

The fees are a small part of the hundreds of millions of non-taxpayer dollars that annually come into the system supporting basic and clinical research.

The research dollars are expected to increase after the medical school opens the Albert Sherman Research Center, a $400 million building set to open later this year.

Our ability to generate $40 million from faculty discovery and innovation is a testament to the great quality of the UMass faculty on all five campuses, UMass President Robert L. Caret told trustees recently. Of the $40 million, $37.6 million was generated by discoveries at the medical school.

Although research is often federally funded, patents usually become the property of universities under provisions of the Bayh-Dole Act, passed by Congress in 1980 and named for the sponsors, Sens. Birch Bayh and Bob Dole.

The $40 million in fees was actually less than the university received in 2009, which was about $70 million. It was a $30 million payment for an anti-diarrhea antibody developed at UMassBiologics that pushed UMass into eighth place nationally that year. It beat out both MIT and Harvard University.

The simple fact is we are one university, and we like to present ourselves that way, said James P. McNamara, executive director of the medical schools Office of Technology Management. The state transferred UMassBiologics operation from the Department of Public Health to the medical school in 1997.

The fees are split among those whose inventions or discoveries generated the fees, and the university, which uses it to support research, pay administrative costs and obtain and defend patents. Mr. McNamara recently successfully defended a UMass patent in Germany.

More here:
Medical school leads the way in licensing fees