University research helps USA compete
— -- The Bayh-Dole Act was enacted 27 years ago, but the ramifications persist to this day. The act lets universities patent and commercialize inventions that come from federally funded research. It has gradually turned universities into incubators for breakthroughs in technology and medicine.
Stanford owns the patent on Google's Internet search technology, and last year, the university earned $48 million from 428 technologies licensed to companies. Texas Instruments was early to recognize the power of university research. The company has partnerships with Rice, Georgia Tech and the University of Illinois, among others, and with universities in India and China. CEO Rich Templeton, 49, spoke with USA TODAY management reporter Del Jones about the R&D coming from colleges. Following are excerpts, edited for clarity and space.
Q: Whatever happened to Bell Labs and the other corporate engines of R&D?
A: They don't exist anymore on the scale that they did in the '50s, '60s and '70s when the government permitted (an AT&T) monopoly. Over time, research has moved into a university setting. The U.S. is in a great position because we have the premier research universities around the globe. But we've got to fund them.
Q: TI donates to the universities, and they give you products? Is it that simple?
A: No, not anywhere near as simple. There's no product development going on between ourselves and universities. They have people who dream of what can be done or what may be possible. They also have a powerful capability to assemble multidisciplinary teams. In medical technology, they can get electrical engineers, computer scientists, biologists, chemists and people from the med schools in the same room.
We can bring people to describe the big barriers and areas where we could do things never imagined if we had a breakthrough. It's that combination of minds that determines interesting research projects. It's interaction as opposed to product development.
Q: Isn't government-funded universities doing R&D a kind of corporate welfare?
