Office of Technology Transfer

 Semaphore offers an outsourced service that establishes a de facto (virtual) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) for those institutions that do not have a matured entity. We assist existing Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) to mitigate risk, improve turnaround time, increase probability of success and accelerate royalty return.  

 The services address three primary areas:

• Independently review the innovation:  establishing the framework and process to evaluate inventions for their commercial potential,

• Utilize ‘best practice’ business guidance: funding, business modeling and development capabilities.
• Source, negotiate and establish business, partnership and investment relationships to cause commercialization opportunity and return on research and innovation.

 Technology Valuation

 Prior to valuing any technology, it is important to determine, estimate, or assume such items as the strength of the technology and its intellectual property (IP) protection including:

• Patent breadth and strength

• Competing technologies
• Need for enabling technology and its likely status
• Current stage of technology development and the likely cost, time and risk associated with completing development
• Likely application/market segments to be addressed and the additional product development needed for the selected segments
• Technology lifetime (i.e. useful, accounting, legal or market/fashion/obsolescence)
• Availability of required standards or infrastructure, if any
• Potential switching costs - both financial and psychic
• Strength of institutional barriers, if any
• FDA or other regulatory agency compliance and/or approvals as needed
• Commercialization paths to be followed. For example, licensing a technology to another generally produces less value (and less risk) for the licensee than if the owner of the technology commercialized it on its own.
• Acceptable width of the valuation range 

  Forensic Evaluation

At the end of the life cycle, Semaphore clients utilize Semaphore to discern either Up Side evaluation strategies or Down Side reparation strategies with Forensic Evaluation skills.

 Up Side evaluation is applied to:

• Capital Requirements

• Liquidity Event Parameters
• Acquisition Requirements
• Divestiture Value
• Merger Cost Analysis
• Acquisition Valuation

Down Side evaluation is applied to determine cause, assign responsibility or seek reparation when addressing:

• Contract Breach Responsibilities

• Dissolution Activity Steps
• Disposal Requirements
• Litigation Causes
• Failing or Failed Project Causes
• Functionality Deficit Responsibilities
• Fraud and Misrepresentation Assignment